Why Pre-Approved Plans?
Pre-approved plans, sometimes referred to as permit-ready or pre-reviewed plans, are architectural designs for housing units that have already been reviewed and approved by local planning and building departments. These plans adhere to municipal building codes, zoning regulations, and design standards, allowing developers and homeowners to bypass much of the traditional approval process.
Municipalities create these pre-approved plans programs to provide developers and individuals with access to standardized designs that meet local housing requirements. This program includes plans for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), single-family homes, and house-sized multi-units. By using these plans, applicants can obtain building permits more quickly and at a lower cost.
This program is as much about fixing policy and procedure as it is about house plans: zoning changes and other policy changes are needed to maximize the impact of the program. The program guide provides significant support and guidance to towns to balance local fear of change with the crisis-level need for housing.
The Catalog of Dwellings (C.O.D.) is a model program available for towns in Barnstable County to optionally adopt, with their own variations as needed. A town can adopt the program in whole or in part, now or later. The town can adopt some or all of the plans -- with whatever other code, policy, and procedure changes it decides locally.
More plans can be added to a town's program later. A three year review cycle is recommended (to align with new building code release cycle) to confirm plans in the program still fit local needs, and assess whether new plans or variations are needed.
Adopting the Catalog of Dwelling Program does not change anything about the existing custom design and development process in a town. Any custom home or design that an interested party wants to build remains allowed and unchanged.
A goal of the program is to re-introduce historic missing middle housing typologies, tools to help to address housing affordability and create housing alignment, to the local builder repertoire, with pre-approved architecture to allow neighbors to be comfortable with the return to increased density in areas with infrastructure.
Pre-Approved Program Benefits
There is a significant housing shortage on Cape Cod, particularly a workforce housing shortage. Towns are trying to reduce the cost of delivering housing, while preserving the rural New England village character of their places. Construction costs and land costs are astronomically high. A model pre-approved plans program was identified by the Cape Cod Commission as one valuable way to address the housing crisis in towns, while retaining high architectural quality and local controls.
Streamlining the Permitting Process
One of the most significant barriers to new housing development is the lengthy and complicated permitting process. Traditional approval can take months or even years due to zoning reviews, environmental impact assessments, and design considerations. Pre-approved plans eliminate many of these steps, reducing approval times significantly.
In cities like San Jose, California, and Portland, Oregon, pre-approved ADU programs have cut down permit approval times from several months to just a few weeks. Faster approvals mean housing can be built and occupied sooner, getting people in safe homes faster.
Reducing Development Costs
Pre-approved plans can expedite project timelines and reduce overhead costs, making affordable housing projects more viable.
Developing new housing can be expensive; architectural design fees, engineering assessments, and administrative costs associated with the permitting process can add up. Pre-approved plans significantly lower these expenses by providing free or low-cost access to ready-made designs.
By eliminating the need for custom architectural services and repeated plan revisions, builders and homeowners save thousands of dollars. Lower costs encourage more small-scale developers and homeowners to participate in housing production, increasing the overall housing supply.
Encouraging Housing Choice
Pre-approved plans programs can be utilized to reintroduce classic missing middle housing types to the market and expand the use of ADUs -- small secondary units built on existing residential properties. ADUs are powerful because they increase housing density without major changes to zoning or to the architectural character of a neighborhood. Pre-approved ADU plans enable homeowners to add rental units quickly and affordably, providing much-needed housing for renters while offering property owners an additional income source.
Several small multi-family buildings are included in the program. This approach helps increase housing stock for critical workers such as teachers, nurses, and service industry employees who struggle to afford market-rate housing.
Ensuring High-Quality Housing Design
Pre-approved plans are often created with input from architects, engineers, and urban planners to ensure they meet high design and sustainability standards. These programs promote energy-efficient buildings, disaster-resistant construction, and smart land use. By ensuring that all pre-approved designs meet strict safety and design guidelines, municipalities help maintain neighborhood aesthetics while addressing climate resilience concerns. These processes can also help boost community engagement and buy-in on the architectural design strategies.
Facilitating Affordable and Workforce Housing
Pre-Approved Plans Programs can be effectively paired with zoning overlays that ease dimensional restrictions. By offering zoning incentives — such as reduced setbacks, increased lot coverage, and higher unit counts — in designated growth areas, jurisdictions can lower the per-unit cost of land. This approach encourages new housing development in locations where it is most appropriate and aligns with long-term planning goals.
Pre-Approved Building Programs
Pre-Approved House Plan Programs Nationally
Standardized building plans have been used historically to help deliver housing affordably and at-scale. What's new is the streamlined approvals process and zoning incentives, with towns actively promoting housing product they want to encourage by providing pre-work and policy alignment to residents.
Early pre-approved house programs began nationally on the west coast in the early 2000s, to encourage more affordable infill housing. The more modern incarnation of the pre-approved programs focused on small catalogs of modular plan styles, to fill the gap in unusual housing product that specific markets needed.
The programs in South Bend and Kalamazoo aim to provide extremely low cost plans in cities with huge quantities of standardized platted lots, gutted by urban renewal and made largely unbuildable by zoning regulations that made most existing lots non-conforming. Zoning changes and policy changes supercharged the impact of the plans program. Targeted pilot projects to field test the plans have been an enormous success.
Pre-Approved Accessory Dwelling Unit Programs
Pre-Approved ADU Programs Nationally
Many municipalities across the country are using pre-approved plans specifically to encourage the development and construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs). State legislation in California requires all cities to have such a program (inspired by a program in Los Angeles).
These programs are often a specific format of programs: a broad catalog of plans that are available free-to-users, but plans generally come with few incentives or significantly shortened or simplified permit times.
ADU programs can thus serve a gap in the general market (very small plans that fit the specific available dimensions of back yards). These programs do have some limitations, though. The broader range of plans often has less stringent filters for architectural quality and character. Without meaningful pre-approvals, the plans catalogs solve most of the cost and time of design with little impact on the cost and time of permitting and construction.
Why Pre-Approved Plans?
C.O.D. Program Benefits
Cost
Simplifies and shortens permitting and inspections process, for towns and citizens. Reduces builder costs: reduces architectural and engineering fees and timelines, building costs through standardization, and interest costs.
Character
Towns and citizens can pre-select for desirable character by providing fully designed buildings. Ensures review for quality & character happens in advance and reduces administrative oversight needs during permitting to ensure quality design. Towns can identify plans that are appropriate for historic and other design districts.
Community Benefit
Encourages development by locals, for locals. Promotes small scale infill at a range of price points, instead of only large custom luxury homes. Re-introduces a broader range of housing types to provide neighbors with the type of housing they need, in the locations they want, at a price point they can afford.
C.O.D. Program Challenges
Zoning
Existing restrictive zoning laws will continue to limit housing choice and development patterns that match historic areas.
Unique Site Conditions
Pre-approved plans may not work for every lot due to unique site conditions, requiring some level of customization.
Public Perception
Some residents may resist increased density or standardized housing designs, requiring community engagement efforts to gain support.
Sewer Access
C.O.D. Projects (and density generally) should be focused on current and planned sewer expansion areas to maximize the benefit and provide more paying users supporting the long term cost of the sewer.
Why Are There Several Names These Programs Go By?
Programs are sometimes referred to by the various names below. Each name references a different level of pre-approval a community has granted to the plans. With more pre-approval, more use by builders (and less review times by towns) can be expected.
- OK — Permit ready: the plans are ready to submit for a permit but don't have any form of pre-review by the town provided as part of the program adoption process.
- GOOD — Pre-reviewed: your town has reviewed the plans and confirmed they're compliant with all codes and ready to permit, but they have not undergone a formal pre-approval process (so the inspector still has to review and approve each set of plans as they are submitted individually).
- BEST — Pre-approved: each adopted plan set of construction documents is fully pre-approved and does not require an additional review by the town beyond building and occupancy permits, or in some cases, site plan review.