Backyard & Outdoor Living in Topanga

Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, Building and Safety Division. Topanga is unincorporated, so building permits come from the County Public Works Building and Safety Division. Most of the canyon lies in the Santa Monica Mountains Coastal Zone, where Regional Planning issues coastal development permits under the certified Local Implementation Program; parcels at the northern end fall outside it, in the Santa Monica Mountains North Area. Improvements to an existing, lawfully established home, pools included, can be exempt from a coastal permit, but not in H1 or H2 habitat, in an area designated as highly scenic, or where a septic system is added or expanded. Grading of 50 to 5,000 cubic yards needs a minor coastal permit, and grading is prohibited from October 15 through April 15 except in limited cases. The program allows only one accessory dwelling unit or guest house per property, at no more than 750 square feet, on a septic system separate from the main house and outside H1 habitat, its buffer and the Quiet Zone, and each one must retire a transfer of development credit. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Two patterns: the rural villages of Fernwood, Old Topanga, Topanga Oaks, Topanga Woods and the Old Post Office Tract, which the coastal program defines as antiquated mountain subdivisions, many created in the 1920s and often lacking infrastructure built to current standards, and scattered hillside parcels on the slopes between them. In the villages, new development must be sited to avoid oak woodland, and where removal cannot be avoided it may not exceed 10 percent of the oak woodland on the property. Where new residential development is approved in H2 or H3 habitat, the building site, counting graded slopes, structures, decks, patios and other hard surfaces, is capped at 10,000 square feet or 25 percent of the parcel, whichever is less. One local condition that shapes the work: CAL FIRE's State Responsibility Area map places nearly all of Topanga in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and the coastal program asks new construction there for fire-resistant exterior materials, windows and roofing, with eaves and vents that resist flame and embers; County Fire fuel modification can also reach beyond the approved building site.

All of it, including Fernwood, Old Topanga, Topanga Oaks and Topanga Woods. 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.