Backyard & Outdoor Living in San Pedro

Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Private pools in the City of Los Angeles are permitted through a Combined Building-Mechanical permit, while pools serving more than two dwelling units need separate building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits. Using a City of Los Angeles standard plan on file with LADBS reduces plan check time. The City's Hillside Grading Area covers most of San Pedro, from the northwest hills to the bluff-top blocks near Point Fermin, and a pool excavation inside it needs its own LADBS grading permit. The older grid east of Gaffey Street between about 6th and 22nd Streets, Vinegar Hill included, lies outside that mapped area. Within the coastal zone, the San Pedro Specific Plan (Ordinance No. 166,352) requires LADBS to confirm compliance before issuing a grading or building permit, and it limits residential buildings to two stories or 26 feet, with no extra height allowed for sloping lots. In the plan's mapped Geologically Hazardous Areas, a building permit also waits on an LADBS-approved report from a registered geologist or soils engineer and a recorded disclosure of the hazards that report identifies. In the Vinegar Hill Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, adopted in 2001 and expanded in 2015, rehabilitation and new development are reviewed to protect the district's historic character. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

The oldest neighborhoods sit close to the waterfront on a traditional street grid, mixing single-family and multi-family housing, while Point Fermin, between the Middle and Upper Reservations of Fort MacArthur, carries California Craftsman and bungalow architecture. Most other single-family neighborhoods, concentrated in the south and west, were developed after World War II and are predominantly modern and ranch-style homes on larger lots. The 2017 Community Plan notes that single-family activity has largely taken the form of remodeling and enlarging original tract homes. One local condition that shapes the work: The coastal bluffs have a record of movement: a 2011 landslide destroyed a 600-foot section of Paseo del Mar beside the White Point Nature Preserve, and the former 600 block of Paseo del Mar, now known as Sunken City, began sliding into the sea in 1929, so geotechnical findings lead any bluff-side design.

All of it, including Point Fermin, Vinegar Hill, The Palisades and Vista del Oro. 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.