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How Fremont California Makes ADUs Easier | ADU Adventures EP021 · ADU Adventures: Building in Your Backyard

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to ADU Adventures, Building Your Backyard.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm James, and today we're staying a little closer to home.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Out in the East Bay in Northern California, in a city I have a real soft spot for.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about Fremont, California.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something a lot of people don't know about Fremont.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't grow the way most cities grow.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: One neighborhood at a time spreading out from a single old downtown.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont was born more or less all at once, from a single decision.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was in 1956 five separate towns, five proud little communities, that had each been doing their own thing for over a century, looked at one another and made a choice.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: They decided they were stronger together, and they merged on purpose into a new single city.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: The five became one, and they called it Fremont.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love that because it's such an unusual way for a city to begin.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not a conquest, not an accident of sprawl, a decision to come together and work together.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the idea I want to sit with today.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: That decision to bring separate households under one shared identity is the exact decision an ADU makes for a family.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont made it at the scale of a city.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can make it at the scale of your own backyard.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's a second thread too, and it runs right alongside the first.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because Fremont has not only come together, it has also over and over again bet wisely on its future.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that turns out to matter enormously when you sit down to decide how to build.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the plan for today.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: First, the history.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a great one.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a mission, a movie star, and one of the boldest civic decisions in Bay Area history.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But second, why Fremont right now is quietly one of the most welcoming cities in California for building an ADU.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And third, the part I really want to hear about how to invest in that ADU wisely, the Fremont way, instead of the way that quietly costs families the most.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: How five became one.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Start long before the city.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Start with the Ohlone.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: According to the city of Fremont's own history, the Allone people lived on this land for thousands of years, settling near the marshes and streams and springs at the foot of what we now call Mission Peak.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then in 1797, Spanish Padres founded Mission San Jose, the fourteenth of California's missions right there.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the land itself has deep roots.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the city, the actual city of Fremont, is young.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the way it was born is the whole story.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Through the first half of the twentieth century, this stretch of the East Bay was five separate towns, and each one had its own personality.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Centerville was the old commercial hub.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Irvington had its busy crossroads.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Mission San Jose had the mission itself and the vineyards.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Warm Springs had, well, the Warm Springs, a genuine resort destination, and Niles had something almost unbelievable.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Before Hollywood was Hollywood, Niles made movies.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: In nineteen thirteen, the SNA Film Company built a studio in Niles, drawn by the light and the scenery.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1915, they landed the biggest star in the world.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Charlie Chaplin came to Niles and, according to KQED, made five films here in just a few months, including one called The Tramp.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: The film where he deepened the little character that would make him a legend.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The closing shot, Chaplin Ambling Off Down a Dirt Road, was filmed in Niles Canyon, and you can still recognize that spot today.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to hold on to how Niles landed Chaplin, because it came back later.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The studio did not get him cheap.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: They paid up real money to bring the best in the world to a little town nobody had heard of.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: KQED calls it, and I love this phrase, an expensive bet that paid off.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Keep that one in your pocket.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the valley of five towns.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Five identities, five main streets, five little worlds sitting side by side.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then in nineteen fifty six they did the remarkable thing.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Under a local leader named Wally Pond, the five towns voted to dissolve themselves and become one city.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Britannica records it plainly.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont was formed in 1956 when the amalgamation of five agricultural communities, they named the new city for John C.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont, the explorer they called the Great Pathfinder.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what that took.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Five communities, each with its own name and pride and history, deciding that the strong move, the wise move, was to stop being five small things and become one larger thing together.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the part I find genuinely lovely.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Coming together didn't mean erasing what made each place itself.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: To this day, the city still recognizes Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs as distinct districts, each holding on to its own character.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont's own word for it, right on the city's website, is that it cherishes the rich cultural value those communities brought.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Five became one, and somehow all five are still there.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it worked.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Coming together gave Fremont the size and the muscle to become something none of the five could have been alone.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Within a few years, General Motors opened an assembly plant here.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: That plant later became NUMI, the famous General Motors and Toyota partnership.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in 2010, it became the Tesla factory, today the largest employer in the city.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Apple even built some of its first Macintosh computers in Fremont.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see the two habits already?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont comes together, and Fremont bets wisely on the future.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: A mission, then movie stars, then cars, then electric cars.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: This city keeps making the bold, forward-looking bet, the chaplain kind of bet, and it keeps paying off.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Two habits coming together and investing wisely.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on to both because the rest of the episode is about how to get to do the very same thing on your own piece of land.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: The city is inviting you.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's come to today in 2026.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And as always on this show, every number I give you is sourced, but not all numbers are perfect, so bear with me.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So to get things started, let's talk about who lives here, because it's remarkable.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont is one of the most diverse cities in the entire United States.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: The city says so plainly on its website.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont's strength is found in the diversity of our community.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: More than ninety-eight languages are spoken in Fremont homes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Census figures put the population around 228,000, which makes Fremont the fourth largest city in the Bay Area, and roughly 64% of the residents are Asian American alongside Latino, White, East Indian, and many other communities.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a quiet truth about a community like this one.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: A great many of these families already believe in their bones in close living.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Multiple generations near one another, grandparents helping raise grandkids, adult children staying within reach of their parents.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: For a huge number of Fremont families, the idea behind an ADU is not some new financial trend.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is simply how family is supposed to work.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now the market, according to Zillow, the typical Fremont home is worth around$1.5 million.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Cooled a little bit over the past year, but still extraordinary.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Data USA puts the home ownership rate at about 61%, and census figures put median household income over$181,000 a year.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you have families who own valuable land, who earn well, and who care deeply about keeping the people they love close.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is about the most fertile ground for an ADU I can imagine.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the beautiful part.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: The city agrees.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because Fremont, the city that was built literally by deciding to come together, has gone and made itself one of the easiest places in California to bring your own family together.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you the specifics because they're genuinely impressive.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: The City of Fremont runs a pre-approved ADU program.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Designers and builders can get an ADU plan approved by the city ahead of time.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when a homeowner uses one of those plans, the city reviews the application in about seven business days, instead of the usual fifteen for a flat fee of around$1,000.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Faster, cheaper, and more certain.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont also runs an ADU amnesty program, a path to legalize older unpermitted units so families can bring them up to code and protect their value.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And ADU approvals in Fremont are ministerial, handled administratively with no public hearing, on the clock, the state sets.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: The most recent update to the city's ADU rules landed in 2026, keeping Fremont aligned with the newest state law.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've looked at a lot of eight California cities on this show, and they vary in terms of ease of being able to permit and build your ADU.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont is one of the most welcoming I've seen.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Detached units up to 1200 square feet, no added parking required, you don't even have to live on the property to have one.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to say something that doesn't get said nearly enough.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: None of this happens on its own.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: A permitting path, this clear, a pre-approved program this practical, an amnesty option this fair, that is a choice.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody at the city sat down and decided to build a process meant to help families, instead of one that quietly wears them down.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the norm out there, and it deserves to be named.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it matters for more than any single homeowner, because every ADU that goes up here is one more family that gets to stay in Fremont, a grandparent who doesn't have to move away, an adult child who isn't priced out, a household that keeps its roots right here.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's good for the whole community.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping people close is something everyone in the city has a stake in.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's exactly what Fremont has been all about ever since 1956.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So put it all together.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: The city that came together on purpose is now on purpose, making it easier for your family to do the same.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: The opportunity is here.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not theoretical, it's wide open.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: The only real question is how do you do it?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that question, how you build it, is the one I want to talk about now.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is a savvy, careful, value-minded community.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: People here work hard for their money and they hate wasting it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is a virtue.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: But in the ADU world, it also can hide a trap.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the trap.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: When families start collecting bids to build an ADU, the discerning instinct is to check out the lowest number and to take it very seriously.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: The lowest bid doesn't always win, but it's definitely responsible to be aware of it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important to know that you have to be careful with your money.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to gently push on that, and I'm going to use Fremont's own history to do it.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Remember Niles Chaplin?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: The studio could have hired a cheaper comedian.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: There were plenty available.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they made the expensive bet on the best.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it paid off for a hundred years.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the five towns?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Staying small and separate would have been easier and cheaper in the short run.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: They made a bigger, wiser investment instead, and built one of the great cities of the Bay Area.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And remember that assembly plant becoming Tesla?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Every step forward was a bet on the future, not a grab for the cheapest path or the cheapest opportunity.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Fremont, at every turning point in its history, has understood one thing.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The wise investment and the cheapest option are always never the same thing.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now look at what an ADU actually is.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a building that you sit on land worth well over a million dollars, and it needs to stand there for 30, 40, 50 years.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: It will house the people you love most.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: The idea that you would choose who builds that and how based on only the lowest sticker price would strike anyone living in Fremont as exactly backwards thinking.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you what the lowest bid usually leaves out, and what a smarter bid actually buys you.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: A low bid buys you a structure.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: A smart bid buys you a finished, permitted, headache-free home and a partner who carries the hard parts.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: The design that genuinely fits your lot and matches your house, the permits pulled and passed, the architecture, the engineering, the city, the inspections, all the coordination, and ultimately having one accountable team, so that you are not the one standing in line at the counter, or refereeing between a designer and a builder who have never met.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: A low bid saves you money on the day you sign, but a smart bid saves you money for the next 30 years.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can expect fewer repairs, lower maintenance, a unit that holds its value on a property that is already valuable and quality your family actually feels when they live in it every day.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: At Acton EDU, we have a saying, we build for the next 30 years, not the next 30 days.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And in a city like Fremont, on land like this, and for a family like yours, that is not the expensive choice, that is the wise one.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is the Fremont choice.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Cheap is a number, but wise is a decision.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Fremont has been making the wise one for almost 70 years.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the heart of the segment.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: The city that chose each other.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to close where we started, with that decision back in 1956.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because the longer I sit with it, the more it moves me.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Five towns, five identities, and they chose each other.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: They decided that what they could build together mattered more than what they could build alone.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly the decision at the heart of every ADU project I have ever watched a family build.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you build it for your adult kids, you are deciding that keeping them near in a region that prices so many young families out matters more than the way things used to be done.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're choosing each other over and over on purpose.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Fremont of all places understands this in its bones.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a city of many families who crossed oceans to be here, who speak 98 languages at the dinner table, and who in enormous numbers already believe that people you love should be within arm's reach.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And ADU doesn't introduce that idea to Fremont.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It just gives it a floor plan.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: At Acton ADU we call this family integrity planning.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a slightly formal name for a very old idea, the same idea the five towns had.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: We are stronger, we are safer, and we are richer in every sense that it matters when we stay close and build something lasting together.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Stan Acton started this company more than 35 years ago on the belief that a home should be built to hold a family for generations, not just pass an inspection.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: That belief is why our team sweats the details and never shows up with the lowest bid.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same instinct that turns one lot into a home for three generations at once.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in Fremont right now, standing on a piece of land you worked hard for, with people you love, who you would rather keep around, I'd offer you the same thing the city offered itself in 1956.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to choose between them.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: You just choose each other.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's Fremont, five towns that became one city.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: A little movie town that bet on a legend, a mission, and a factory, and ninety-eight languages at dinner tables.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is a community that has always understood that coming together is the wisest investment there is.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending this time with me today, and for thinking so carefully about the people you love and the land you're standing on.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want to give a little shout out to Fremont itself and to all the people that quietly built this program.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is rare and it is worth appreciating when a community decides to make it easier for families to stay together, and Fremont's really doing that.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: If today got you thinking about your own backyard, Acton ADU would be honored to help you out.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've been building across the Bay Area and LA County for over 35 years, and Fremont and the East Bay are home territory for us.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We know these neighborhoods, we know the city's processes, and we know how to build something that fits your home, serves your family, and lasts for decades.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: We don't just build ADUs.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: We build homes that last and legacies that stay in the family.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're interested, visit actinadu.com or call us at 408 539 1908 for a free consultation.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's no pressure, just an honest conversation about what's possible on your property.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm James, and this has been ADU Adventures Building in Your Backyard.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for choosing each other.