Stop citing Government Code 65852.2 on ADU plans — it's 66313 now

If your ADU plan set, submittal checklist, or standard-detail sheet still cites Government Code §65852.2, you're pointing at a section that no longer holds California's ADU rules. A sharp plan checker can flag it — and as of the January 2026 Title 24 errata, the corrected number is printed right there in the code books for them to check against.

What actually changed

Here's the thing: this isn't a new ADU rule. California recodified its entire ADU statute out of the old §65852.2 and its companion sections into a dedicated chapter of the Government Code — §§66310–66342 — under SB 477 (Chapter 7, Statutes of 2024). The definitions that used to sit in §65852.2 now live in §66313.

The 2025 Title 24 books were printed still cross-referencing the old number in a handful of spots. The January 2026 errata fixed that, correcting the ADU Government Code reference to §66313 in six code books at once:

• California Residential Code (Part 2.5) — the R202 Accessory Dwelling Unit definition and the R309.2 sprinkler exception.
• California Electrical Code (Part 3) — the Article 100 Accessory Dwelling Unit definition.
• California Mechanical Code (Part 4) — the Chapter 2 Accessory Dwelling Unit definition.
• California Plumbing Code (Part 5) — the Chapter 2 definition, plus a Government Code citation in Section 311.1 (the utility-connection note).
• California Existing Building Code (Part 10) — the Section 202 definition.
• CALGreen (Part 11) — both the Accessory Dwelling Unit and Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit definitions in Chapter 2.

One Sacramento housing statute threads through half the code library because an ADU triggers electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and green-code obligations — and every book has to point at the same controlling section.

Verified against the 2025 code text: the ADU definition in the Residential, Electrical, Existing Building, and CALGreen books now points to Government Code Section 66313 — the corrected target. The same definition fix lands in the Mechanical and Plumbing books.

66313 is the definition — the fee cite is somewhere else

This is the part worth slowing down on. §66313 is the definitions section. It's where "accessory dwelling unit" and "junior accessory dwelling unit" are defined — and it's the only thing the Title 24 books cross-reference, because all they need from the statute is what counts as an ADU.

The substantive protection people often quote in the same breath — that an ADU isn't a new residential use for utility connection fees or capacity charges — was never in §66313. In the old code it sat in §65852.2(f); after the recodification it moved to §66324; and SB 543 amended and renumbered that to §66311.5, effective January 1, 2026. The former §66324 number is now repealed.

That's worth keeping straight around the Plumbing Code's §311.1 — the note that an ADU isn't required to have its own independent utility (drainage) connection. The errata repointed that note to §66313 along with the definitions, because it leans on the ADU definition to decide what qualifies. But the substantive fee and utility-connection protection itself doesn't live in §66313: in your own plan notes, deed language, or fee disputes, the current number to cite is §66311.5 — not §66313, and not §66324. Two different statutes, two different numbers, both once buried in §65852.2.

The Monday-morning sweep

The payoff is concrete. Open your ADU templates — plan notes, submittal checklists, deed-restriction language, city handouts, standard-detail sheets — and search for "65852.2." Where it's used for the definition of an ADU or JADU, replace it with §66313. Where it's used for the fee or utility-connection carve-out, replace it with §66311.5.

Do it once, across every template, and you've closed the gap before a reviewer opens it. If a city ordinance or handout you rely on still prints the old number, it's worth a note to staff — and worth confirming the current section with your local jurisdiction before you submit, since local ADU ordinances update on their own schedules.

What CrossBeam does with it

CrossBeam reads every Title 24 errata the day it lands and tells you, in plain language, what moved before it trips up a submittal. For ADUs that means you always get the controlling section number as it reads today — definition, fees, and utility connections — not the one your template was built on a renumbering or two ago.