ADUs & Additions in Venice

Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Building, grading and pool permits are issued by LADBS because this is part of the City of Los Angeles, but nearly the whole community sits inside the coastal zone. The Venice Local Coastal Program is still not fully certified (a Land Use Plan certified in 2001 is in place while an updated plan is being drafted with the California Coastal Commission) so projects need a coastal development permit through Los Angeles City Planning, and city decisions remain appealable to the Commission.

Most projects also require a Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan (Ordinance No. 175,693) determination or specific plan exemption before a building permit can be issued. In the mapped dual permit jurisdiction area a separate Coastal Commission permit is required as well, so entitlement duration varies widely.

We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Unusually narrow lots on walk streets, canals and alley-loaded blocks, with small deep rear yards and minimal street frontage. One local condition that shapes the work: Groundwater near the canals and the beach can be shallow, which can require dewatering during excavation and hydrostatic relief in the finished pool shell.

All of it, including The Venice Canals, Oakwood, Milwood and East Venice. Our crews run every job out of our Cahuenga Pass base in Los Angeles, with our own people on site.

Detached ADU: generally $150,000 to $400,000+ across Southern California. What moves it is square footage, finish level, utility runs, and site access; garage conversions typically run well below a ground-up detached build. We give line-item pricing after seeing the site rather than quoting a number over the phone.

Plan a realistic year. Design and engineering typically take one to three months, city plan check and corrections add several more, and construction usually runs four to eight months depending on size and site access.

Usually yes, and often substantially, because the foundation, walls and roof already exist. The trade-offs are that you lose the garage, and older slabs and framing sometimes need upgrading to meet current code.

California ADU law is designed to allow long-term rental, and an ADU is one of the few ways to add rentable square footage to a single-family lot. Short-term rental rules vary by city, so confirm your local ordinance before counting on that income.

Yes. Plans, engineering, Title 24 and the city submittal are all handled in-house, including responding to plan-check corrections. That is a service we sell on its own, so it is not something we hand off.