Backyard & Outdoor Living in Temple City

City of Temple City Community Development Department, Building & Safety Division. Residential permits are issued by Building & Safety, part of the Community Development Department, at City Hall, 9701 Las Tunas Drive. A project must be approved by the Planning Division before its plans are submitted online for building plan review, so a new pool, pool house or addition begins with a zoning check. In the R-1 zone, an accessory structure with plumbing, such as a pool house with a bathroom, requires a conditional use permit, and pools and spas need five-foot side and rear setbacks and ten feet on a street side yard. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

In the R-1 single-family zone, any newly created lot must be at least 7,200 square feet, and a flag lot subdivision is limited to one flag lot and needs an original parcel with at least 80 feet of street frontage and 210 feet of depth. Lot coverage is capped at 0.275 times lot area plus 1,125 square feet, and at least 35 percent of a 7,200 to 9,999 square foot lot must stay permeable, which limits how much of a yard can go to solid paving. One local condition that shapes the work: The city is relatively flat, with no major slopes or bluffs. For new construction, the code requires a lot to keep accepting any cross-lot drainage that already flows onto it and, where the finished grade leaves those drainage patterns unchanged, to stay within eight inches of the grade of adjacent sites.

All of it, including Original 1923 townsite, Downtown Las Tunas Drive, Temple City Park area and Live Oak Park area. 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.