Backyard & Outdoor Living in Cerritos

City of Cerritos Department of Community Development, Building and Safety Division (building and safety services contracted to Los Angeles County Public Works). Planning Division approval is required before any home improvement project or construction activity begins, and the City keeps separate Planning applications for pools, spas and equipment, patio structures, block walls and fences, and major and minor room additions. Homes inside a homeowners association need written HOA approval, recorded on the City's HOA Approval Form, before the City grants plan approval or building permits. Building and safety services are contracted to Los Angeles County, so plan check follows the Los Angeles County Building Code and the County's plan check and permit fees are passed on to applicants by the City. Additions over 900 square feet or 70 percent of the existing floor area, and additions or exterior remodels that significantly change a home's appearance from the street, go to the Planning Commission as a Precise Plan, and a pool that encroaches more than 25 percent into the side yard or into any portion of the front yard also needs Planning Commission approval. The City also accepts ADU plans for pre-approval under AB 1332. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Most Cerritos neighborhoods were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, and single-family lots outside the planned communities are zoned RS-5000 or RS-6500. Building coverage, counting the first floor, the garage and overhangs deeper than 30 inches, is capped at 45 percent of the lot in RS-5000 and 40 percent in RS-6500, floor area ratio at 0.70, and at least 20 percent of the property area must stay open within the rear 30 feet. Planned communities such as Shadow Park and Granada Park were laid out around shared landscaped open space, and where an HOA exists its written approval precedes the City's. One local condition that shapes the work: The entire city lies in a state-mapped liquefaction hazard zone over roughly 1,000 feet of alluvial sand and silt, and the General Plan notes perched water within several feet of the surface in many areas, conditions that bear on pool excavation and addition footings.

All of it, including Shadow Park, Granada Park, The Courts and Encore. Our crews run every job out of our Cahuenga Pass base in Los Angeles, with our own people on site.

Full backyard transformation: generally $50,000 to $250,000+ across Southern California. What moves it is how much hardscape is involved, whether a pool or outdoor kitchen is included, grading and retaining, and the level of lighting and planting. We give line-item pricing after seeing the site rather than quoting a number over the phone.

A patio and turf refresh often finishes in three to five weeks. A full transformation with hardscape, an outdoor kitchen, structures and lighting typically runs ten to sixteen weeks, and longer if a pool is part of the same phase.

Pavers cost more up front but flex with ground movement instead of cracking, and individual units can be lifted and replaced. Poured concrete is cheaper initially, but a crack means cutting out and repouring a section that rarely matches. On most Southern California soil we recommend pavers for anything you will look at every day.

Yes, and on most projects we insist on it. Correcting grade and adding proper drainage while the yard is already open is far cheaper than retrofitting it after new hardscape is down.

Yes. Design, permits, hardscape, structures, kitchen, lighting and planting run through one team and one project manager, so nothing gets lost between trades.