Custom Home Builder in Brentwood

Los Angeles adopted the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance in 2008 and its hillside counterpart, the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, in 2011. City Planning wrote them to address out-of-scale development in single-family zones and the construction impacts that come with building in Hillside Areas. Together they set the size and bulk of a new home on a Brentwood lot.

Which set applies is a parcel question. Brentwood runs from level blocks to canyon streets, and LADBS determines whether the hillside rules apply to a given project. On a hillside lot the street counts as well: a new home on a lot fronting a Substandard Hillside Limited Street with a roadway narrower than 20 feet does not get a building or grading permit unless the project is approved under Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 12.24 X.21.

I read every lot on ZIMAS, the City's zoning map, before design starts, and I take the questions that matter to an LADBS preliminary plan check meeting with a plan check engineer when the lot is not simple.

When a new home replaces an older house, the project adds a demolition permit, utility disconnections, and a hard look at what the old foundation and the old grading leave behind. I document existing conditions before demolition so nothing found in the ground becomes a surprise in the schedule.

If you are still choosing a lot, bring me in before you close. A lot that reads well on a listing can carry a slope, a street, or an easement that changes the house you can build on it.

1. Lot reading and site walk. Zoning, hillside status, street frontage, and permit history first, then a walk of the lot with you.

2. Design team. Your architect and engineers draw the house and its structure. I review for constructability, sequencing, and access while changes still cost nothing but a revision.

3. Approvals and plan check. Any planning approval the lot needs comes first, then LADBS plan check through ePlanLA. I work the corrections with your architect and keep the submittal complete. I never promise approval dates, because the City sets them.

4. Written scope and agreement. You approve the written scope and agreement before any work starts. Each payment stage ties to a named milestone you can verify on site.

5. Build. Demolition where needed, foundation, framing, roof and envelope, systems, insulation, drywall, finishes, each with its City inspection. Licensed trades handle the specialty work. You get site photos as the work moves, and any condition that changes the scope reaches you in writing the day I find it.

6. Final inspection and handover. LADBS signs off, we walk the house together, close the punch list, and I hand over the documents for everything we built.

A Brentwood home is priced by its drawings, its lot, and its finishes. I put a written number on a defined scope after the site walk and the plan review, never before. Share the budget range you plan in the build request below, and I will tell you early whether the design and the budget agree.