ADUs & Additions in West Hills

Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). LADBS issues residential building, grading and pool permits here, with plan check and inspection at the Van Nuys Development Services Center under the Canoga Park-Winnetka-Woodland Hills-West Hills Community Plan. Properties along the western edge toward the Simi Hills fall inside Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone mapping, expanded in Cal Fire's 2025 recommended Local Responsibility Area maps for Los Angeles County, which brings LAFD brush clearance requirements and California Building Code Chapter 7A ignition-resistant construction standards. Sloping parcels can also fall in the city's designated hillside area under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance (No. 184,802), limiting grading quantity, height and retaining wall dimensions. Oak and western sycamore are widespread on the canyon-side lots and are protected at four cumulative inches of trunk diameter, requiring an Urban Forestry permit before removal or encroachment. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing the city.

Parcels run from flat 7,000-square-foot tract lots on the east side to larger sloping half-acre-plus properties toward the hills, several of which back directly onto open space and natural brush. In practice that means rear yards on the canyon side slope toward natural drainage courses, so retaining walls, subdrains and erosion control usually come before any finished surface goes in..

All of it, including Shadow Ranch, Platt Ranch, Orcutt Ranch. We are based in Los Angeles at Cahuenga Pass, so West Hills is a short run for our crews rather than a job we service from out of the area.

Detached ADU in this market generally runs $150,000 to $400,000+. 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.