Sacramento ADU Fees 2026: Crossing 750 Costs $5,728

Published: 6 Oct 2026 · Last verified: 5 Oct 2026 · Next review: Jan 2027 Cost figures are re-checked against permit records quarterly. Changes are logged in Corrections.

The San Francisco post in this series is about a cliff that barely exists. This one is about a cliff you can measure to the dollar — because the City of Sacramento published the worksheet that proves it.

Sacramento’s official ADU fee estimate prices a 749 sq ft new-construction unit at $4,289 in city fees and a 750 sq ft unit at $10,017. One square foot: $5,728 more. That is not a modeling choice. Those are the city’s own numbers, and they make Sacramento the mirror image of San Francisco — the city in this series where the 750 sq ft line matters most.

So this post does two things. First, the standard six-phase breakdown for an 800 sq ft detached ADU in Sacramento — $316,000, or $395 per square foot. Then the fee autopsy: which three fees create the cliff, the one fee that ignores it, and the city’s own 747 sq ft escape hatch.

The short answer

The full line-item breakdown

Six phases. The same six used on every build in this series.

Shares rounded.

One honest caveat before the tables: Sacramento’s agencies do not publish phase-level construction costs, and we found no public Sacramento permit-valuation dataset to anchor one. So phases two through six are carried from the Los Angeles County baseline, unchanged — we will not print a number we cannot anchor. What is rebuilt from Sacramento sources, line by line, is the soft-cost phase. That is where this city’s story lives.

Where Sacramento differs from Los Angeles

The totals are close, but the soft-cost line is built from completely different parts than San Francisco’s: Sacramento’s permit-and-planning bill is roughly half of SF’s $19,500, and then the impact-fee structure does things San Francisco’s never does.

The fee autopsy: ≈ $10,000, line by line

Sacramento publishes something most cities in this series do not: a dedicated ADU fee estimate worksheet (CDD-0419, revised 1 Oct 2023) with worked columns for 749, 750, and 1,200 sq ft. An 800 sq ft unit falls in the 750 sq ft column’s fee band — past every exemption. Here is what that column says:

Permit and review fees: ≈ $3,660. Building permit ($1,242.60), planning inspection ($336), building plan review ($425), planning plan review ($168), residential construction tax ($315), strong-motion fee ($16.15), construction excise tax ($591), debris recycling ($49.70), business operations tax ($49.70), technology surcharge ($133.41), general plan surcharge ($325), green building fee ($4). Fire, public works, and utilities review add another $656 in deposits and hourly minimums.

The three impact fees: $5,725.64. This is the cliff, itemized:

(The remaining ~$2 of the $5,728 step comes from valuation-scaled fees ticking up with the larger unit.)

Combined city total: ≈ $10,017 — on 2023 rate tables. The worksheet’s rates predate 2024–2026 adjustments, so treat individual lines as a shape, not a quote. What is confirmed current is the structure itself: the city’s ADU Resource Center still states plainly that “if the ADU is equal to or less than 749 square feet, the development impact fees are waived” — state law (Gov. Code § 66311.5) working exactly as written.

The 750 square foot cliff, measured

In the San Diego post, crossing 750 sq ft triggers $5,000–$8,000 in newly applicable impact fees. In the San Francisco post, the same crossing triggers almost nothing. Sacramento is the San Diego end of that spectrum — with receipts:

The marginal 50 sq ft from 750 to 800 therefore costs roughly $115 per foot in fees alone — before a single stud is framed. In San Francisco that same 50 sq ft costs $0 in added fees. The two posts together are the series’ cleanest A/B test: identical state law, opposite local fee structures.

Note the Sacramento-only ingredient: the SAFCA flood-control fee. Sacramento sits in a floodplain, and its fee schedule says so — $1,575 of the cliff exists because this city manages flood risk. No other city in the series prices its geography quite this literally.

The city that dodges its own cliff

Here is the part we like best. Sacramento’s ADU Resource Center publishes free shelf-ready designs — and the two-bedroom model is drawn at 747 sq ft. Three square feet under the cliff. The city’s own program is dimensioned to land on the $4,289 side of its own worksheet.

Compare that to San Francisco, whose pre-approved plan program has published zero plans, and Escondido, which publishes four free plans with no cliff to dodge. Sacramento is the only city in the series where the pre-approved program is both real and strategically sized — the municipality using its own rulebook the way a good builder would.

The practical math: a 747 sq ft shelf-ready build skips the $5,728 cliff and the design line. Against our modeled 800 sq ft custom build, that is on the order of $19,000 in combined fee and design savings — the single biggest lever in this post.

The fee that ignores the cliff: schools

One line does not care about 750 sq ft. The city’s worksheet lists school impact fees with no size exemption — “Check with District (fees paid at district offices)” — and the city’s official school-fee schedule (CDD-0226, revised 1 Jul 2025) sets the rates:

On our 800 sq ft unit in SCUSD territory: $4,104 — due in full, cliff or no cliff. School developer fees sit under a separate Education Code framework from the Mitigation Fee Act impact fees that state law waives under 750 sq ft, and districts interpret the boundary differently. Sacramento’s worksheet treats the fee as simply applicable. Know your district before you budget; within one city the spread is nearly 3×.

Water, sewer, and power: the quiet lines

City water and sewer: effectively $0. The worksheet’s own notes say ADUs “generally connect to existing water main or tie into the line of the main dwelling unit” — no separate connection, no separate meter, no city capacity charge.

County sewer (SacSewer/Regional San): verifying. The worksheet punts this one — “check with County,” “paid at County offices” — and we could not locate SacSewer’s residential ADU impact-fee schedule. State law waives most special-district fees for ADUs under 750 sq ft; an 800 sq ft unit is not covered. Until confirmed, treat county sewer fees as an open line — see Corrections.

Electric (SMUD): not published. We could not locate SMUD’s ADU connection or capacity-charge policy in its published documents, so no figure is printed here. Typically the unit ties into existing service, but “typically” is not a source.

What moves the number most in Sacramento

1. Which side of 750 sq ft you build on. Nothing else in this post moves the number by $5,728 for one square foot. If the program fits, 749 sq ft (or the city’s 747 sq ft shelf-ready plan) is the highest-value design decision in the series so far.

2. Your school district. $4,104 in SCUSD territory, up to ~$5,856 in Elk Grove USD — on the same 800 sq ft box. Confirm the parcel’s district with the city’s school-fee schedule before anything else.

3. Design: free plan vs. custom. The shelf-ready catalog exists and is dimensioned around the cliff. Custom design keeps the full $14,000 line; the free plan zeroes it.

4. County sewer fees. The one open line that could still move soft costs by four figures. We will update when SacSewer’s schedule is confirmed.

5. ADU type. This post models new detached construction. A garage conversion bills under alteration rates with the shell already standing; a JADU is exempt from impact fees statewide and, since 2026, from school fees too.

What this number does not include

A 12% contingency on this build is $37,920.

→ Full year-one ownership cost: ADU all-in cost in California

→ The mirror image, where the cliff barely exists: San Francisco ADU cost

→ Where the cliff also bites: San Diego ADU cost

Put your own quote in these six rows

We made a blank version of the six-phase ledger. Drop your contractor’s numbers into it and see which line doesn’t match ours.

Download the worksheet — CSV (import to Google Sheets), no email required

Compare any two builds side by side →

Want the regional benchmark ranges for each phase, updated quarterly?

Get the benchmark sheet →

Methodology and sources

Every figure on this page is a modeled median, not a quote. Here is exactly how it was built, so you can check it or reproduce it yourself.

On the fee worksheet’s age. CDD-0419 was last revised 1 Oct 2023; individual fee lines may have been adjusted since. The city’s current ADU Resource Center confirms the 750 sq ft exemption structure is unchanged, and the school-fee schedule is current to July 2025. Pull the current worksheet for your own project before you budget — the examples above are a shape, not a quote.

On the construction phases. Sacramento’s agencies do not publish phase-level construction costs, and we located no public Sacramento permit-valuation dataset for ADUs. Phases two through six are therefore carried unchanged from the Los Angeles County baseline rather than adjusted by an unanchored regional factor. If you hold Sacramento permit valuations or contractor data, we want them — see Corrections.

On the open lines. SacSewer/Regional San sewer impact fees and SMUD electrical connection policy could not be verified from published sources as of 5 Oct 2026 and are excluded from the total rather than estimated. We will update this post when confirmed — see Corrections.

If your local numbers diverge meaningfully from ours, we want to know. See Corrections.