Six things decide what fits.

Zoning and jurisdiction

Whether your parcel allows an ADU at all, and under whose rules.

Every city in the valley writes its own ADU code, and inside a city, overlays can change the answer street by street. The same floor plan can be simple on one parcel and a variance case two blocks away. This is the first thing we pull, and it's parcel-specific, not neighborhood gossip.

The lot check answers: Your parcel's current designation and what it permits.

Setbacks and buildable area

The invisible lines that decide where a building can legally sit.

Take your lot, subtract the required distances from every property line, subtract easements, and what's left is the envelope. The envelope is why compact plans exist: a lot that can't take a 695 square foot two-bed will often take a 280 square foot studio without drama.

The lot check answers: The actual envelope drawn against your lot, with every plan that fits inside it.

Utilities

Where water, sewer, and power are now, and what it takes to reach the new home.

The most underrated factor. Every foot between existing service and the unit is trench, conduit, and pipe, and the route matters as much as the distance. Older properties add wrinkles: septic instead of city sewer, a well, power that only exists overhead. We've built through all three on one project, so none of them scare us. They just belong in the scope on day one.

The lot check answers: Where your services actually sit and the realistic route to the unit.

Access

Whether the machines that build the thing can reach your backyard.

A concrete truck, an excavator, and a load of trusses all need a path. Usually that's a side yard or an alley, and its width decides methods and money. A skinny gate doesn't kill a project. It changes how we stage it, and you want a builder who measured before quoting.

The lot check answers: The equipment route, measured, and what it means for the build plan.

Easements and what's already back there

Recorded rights and standing obstacles inside your lot.

Utility and irrigation easements can cross exactly the corner you had in mind, and nothing habitable goes on top of them. Then there's the physical layer: the shed that has to go, the tree worth designing around, the grade that decides the foundation. The parcel record tells half this story; standing in the yard tells the rest.

The lot check answers: Recorded easements from the parcel record, plus a site walk for the rest.

Plan fit

Which of the six City plans, or what custom design, your lot actually takes.

The pre-approved set runs from a 280 square foot studio to a 695 square foot two-bed, plus two studio-over-garage plans for lots that need to stack. Inside Boise, fitting one of those is the shortest path to a permit. When none fit, or you're outside Boise city limits, custom is the answer, and that's the trade we come from.

The lot check answers: A straight answer: which plans fit, or why custom is the honest route.