San Diego County is a step closer to letting ADUs be sold as condos. But planners are ‘concerned about the rural areas.’

San Diego County is one step closer to joining other California communities in letting ADUs be sold as condos.

The latest move to loosen rules governing accessory dwelling units in the county’s unincorporated areas got a warm reception Friday from county planning commissioners, who voted unanimously to let property owners sell detached ADUs under a new state law.

The law, Assembly Bill 1033, allows jurisdictions to opt into permitting such sales. Cities like San Diego, San Jose and Santa Cruz now allow ADU condo sales.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote in March on whether to include the measure in an update of the county’s ADU ordinance. If they support it, San Diego County would become the second county in California, after San Francisco, to opt into an ADU sales program under the 2023 law.

County staff had originally recommended that only detached ADUs be eligible for conversion into condos and eventual sale, citing the potential for more ADU sales to disrupt typical development patterns in rural areas.

But planning commissioners disagreed and directed the ordinance update to allow for the sale of attached and detached ADUs.

Commissioner Kevin Sabellico argued th...