Luxury Remodeling in Lakewood

Lakewood is relatively flat, and the City's Housing Element notes that no residentially zoned property sits on or near a slope subject to landslides. With so little natural fall, drainage has to be designed: the zoning code bars regrading that diverts runoff onto an abutting property, keeps roof water from accessory structures, ADUs included, from falling off the lot, and has lot drainage directed to the public right-of-way and storm drain system in a manner the Public Works Director accepts.

The General Plan's technical background report describes the city's alluvial soils as mostly clay and silt loams that are relatively impermeable and cause some subsurface drainage problems. It identifies the Ramona-Placentia and Chino soil associations in parts of the city as expansive, noting that the City required stronger foundations for new construction on them.

The same report documents sulfate attack on slab-on-grade foundations in a handful of tracts, most notably the one bounded by Studebaker Road, Del Amo Boulevard, Interstate 605 and Chadwell Street, where salt-laden moisture drawn up from shallow groundwater degraded the concrete. It names a moisture barrier with reinforced, sulfate-resistant concrete as the most effective slab repair.

Pools and their equipment may sit within the required side and rear setbacks, but an enclosure for pool equipment may not exceed six feet in height, and where the heater or filter sits in a side yard or within three feet of the rear property line, the side and rear perimeter walls must be of one-hour fire-resistive construction.

The City's Hazard Mitigation Plan, as summarized in the 2022 Housing Element, scores the relative risk of fire, including wildland and urban interface fire, as very low, and places all residentially zoned property in areas of low flood risk.