What this site is
SoCal ADU Tracker summarizes public building-permit records so homeowners can see what accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and garage conversions have been permitted nearby. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with any city, county or state agency.
Where the permit data comes from
- California Department of Housing and Community Development: Housing Element Annual Progress Reports (data.ca.gov).
- City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety: building permits (data.lacity.org).
- City of San Diego Development Services Department: development permits (data.sandiego.gov).
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, to place addresses on the map.
We keep only public permit details: address, parcel number, dates, work description, declared valuation and permit type. We remove owner, applicant and contractor names and contact details, and code-enforcement notes. If you see personal information, or a record about your property that you believe is wrong, contact us (below) and we will review it.
What we collect when you use the site
- No accounts, no cookies, no ads. We don't sell or share personal information.
- Addresses you search. To find the location, the address you type is sent to the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, a government service with its own privacy policy. We keep the address text and its map coordinates for up to 30 days to speed up repeat searches. It is not stored with your IP address or anything else that identifies you.
- Share links. Because we use analytics, links to a search never contain the address you typed; they contain only an approximate map position (rounded to about 100 meters).
- Search counts. Each address searched is counted once per month in a total for its city and ZIP code. The address itself isn't stored in these counts, and nothing identifies you. We use these totals, and may share or sell reports of them to builders, to show which areas are interested in ADUs. ZIP codes with fewer than 10 searches in a month are never reported on their own.
- IP addresses. Our server uses your IP address in memory for about a minute to limit abusive numbers of searches. We don't write it to our logs. Our hosting and network providers may keep standard technical logs under their own policies.
- Third-party content. Your browser loads map images from OpenFreeMap and the map software from unpkg.com, so those services see your IP address, as with any website.
- Analytics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views. It uses no cookies and does not track you across sites; we only see totals such as page views and referring sites.
- Featured builders. Some pages show a sponsored builder listing. We don't share anything about you with featured builders; if you click through to a builder's website, their own privacy policy applies.
Terms of use
- Information only. This site is for general information. It is not zoning, feasibility, engineering, legal or financial advice, and it doesn't tell you what you can build on your property. Check with your city's planning and building department before making decisions.
- No guarantee of accuracy. Public records can be incomplete, delayed or wrong, and some categories (such as “garage conversion”) are inferred automatically from permit text. Costs shown are values declared on permits, not actual construction costs.
- Provided “as is”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties and are not liable for decisions made or losses arising from use of this site.
- Sponsored listings. Builders marked “Sponsored” pay to be featured. We check that they hold an active California contractor license when they're listed, but we don't endorse, recommend or guarantee any builder or their work. Verify licenses yourself and get more than one quote.
- Fair use. Please don't scrape or overload the site. Automated bulk use of the address search is not permitted.
Changes and contact
If these terms change, we'll update this page and its effective date. Email [email protected].