ADU Construction in Altadena Under County Review
Altadena ADUs drawn for Los Angeles County review: zoning, building plan check and, on fire-mapped parcels, a fuel modification plan for the planting.
Los Angeles County reviews an ADU in Altadena, because Altadena is unincorporated. Several county offices can take part. Regional Planning reads the unit against the ADU zoning rules, Public Works checks the building plans, and on a fire-mapped parcel the county Fire Department can review the planting around the unit. Some Altadena parcels are mapped for fire hazard, so we look up the parcel before any sketch.
Planning and building plan check
Regional Planning confirms that the unit's size, height and setbacks meet the county's ADU ordinance and state law, and a qualifying unit is approved without a hearing. Building and Safety at Public Works then checks the structure, the energy forms and the ember-resistant construction a mapped parcel requires: Class A roofing, enclosed eaves, ember-resistant vents and tempered glass. Their comments arrive separately. A change made to answer one, such as a footprint shifted back from the edge of a bank, can touch the other, so we return both responses together and keep the sets matched.
Fuel modification around the unit
On a fire-mapped parcel, the county Fire Department can call for a fuel modification plan. It splits the ground into bands moving outward from the walls. In the first band, right beside the walls, the ground is paved, graveled or planted low and kept watered, and wood mulch is left out. Farther out, shrubs are spaced and thinned, and tree canopies are lifted high enough that fire on the ground cannot climb into them. The plan lists each plant and shows how every band is irrigated. A landscape designer draws it. If the yard slopes, deep-rooted plants stay on the bank to hold it.
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Anywhere the county setbacks allow, with the walls kept a safe distance from the edge of any bank. On a fire-mapped Altadena parcel, the thinned planting bands must also land inside the lot lines, which can pull the unit toward the house.
An Altadena unit is inside the package if it qualifies, stands a single story tall and encloses no more than 500 square feet. Here the site plan does double duty: Regional Planning reads its setbacks, and the Fire Department reads the planting bands, so we draw it for both. We price the build, and any engineering a grade needs, after a visit to the parcel.
Where the parcel is mapped, the fuel modification plan, the thinning it calls for and the irrigation it shows all add cost. Ember-resistant roofing, vents and glass cost more than standard products. Where the yard slopes, piers or stepped footings use more concrete than a slab, and a cut pad may need a wall behind it.
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