SANTA CRUZ — In its latest step to address the local housing crisis, Santa Cruz County is putting together a pilot program that would lower development fees for homeowners to build a small accessory dwelling unit, or “granny unit,” on their property.

If approved, the three-year pilot program would lower the average county Planning Department fees from $11,500 to $4,200 for accessory dwelling units less than 640 square feet. Other fees — for water and sewage hookups, for example — aren’t under the county’s purview and can range into the tens of thousands of dollars.

The pilot program is expected to be considered for approval at the Oct. 30 meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

“If we’re going to be serious about building affordable housing to serve our workforce, we have to be willing to do what it takes to make sure it gets built in an expedited fashion — and that includes eliminating fees where they really aren’t serving a greater purpose,” said 2nd District Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, who proposed program, in an interview Thursday.

County supervisors unanimously voted to move forward with the pilot on Sept. 25 and are scheduled to review a resolution to enact the changes Oct. 30.

Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Casey Beyer called the county’s lack of affordable housing the “No. 1 policy concern” for local businesses in an email sent in support of the proposal. Beyer has said many local businesses are struggling to recruit qualified employees due to Santa Cruz County’s high cost of living.

“While the Chamber believes there is more the county and the four cities within Santa Cruz County can do more to create more efficient land use regulations designed to build more housing units, this pilot program is one step in the right direction,” Beyer said in the email.

Santa Cruz County is, by many metrics, one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation. The county is need of nearly 12,000 new affordable rentals to meet the demand of its current low-income residents, according to a recent California Housing Partnership report.

In May, the county government released an online Accessory Dwelling Unit toolkit in an effort to make the process clearer and easier for homeowners. And over the prior year, the state and local government have implemented a number of other changes to ease regulations and make more properties eligible for an ADU.

The changes already appear to be working. The county had issued 23 ADU permits as of Aug. 1, up from 14 by the same time last year and nine by the same time in 2016.

But permitting fees pose the biggest barrier to many homeowners who would otherwise be interested in adding an ADU to their property, the county found in a 2017 survey of hundreds of local homeowners.

The average cost to build a detached, 535-square-foot ADU in the unincorporated county is about $140,000, according to survey respondents. A similarly sized conversion, the least-expensive option, cost respondents an average of $50,000.

The city of Santa Cruz is also moving forward with easing ADU regulations as part of its own effort to address the housing crisis, considering allowing two ADUs on larger properties and doing away with an associated parking requirement.

If you go

What: County supervisors to consider three-year pilot program waiving majority of Planning Department’s accessory dwelling unit development fees.

When: 9 a.m. Oct. 30.

Where: Governmental Center, 701 Ocean St., Santa Cruz, Room 525.