ADU Construction in Burbank for Level and Sloped Lots
Burbank ADUs on level and sloped lots: what the city plan checker reviews, where the unit can sit, and how grading and drainage are drawn.
A Burbank plan checker reviewing a backyard unit on a sloped lot looks hard at two things: how the pad is cut or filled, and where rain goes once the ground is reshaped. The City of Burbank runs its own building review, so the drawings answer to that office. We survey the lot first and design the grading and drainage before the walls, since a pad that sheds water toward a neighbor will not pass.
Grading the reviewer will question
Cutting into a grade to make a flat pad leaves a bank that needs a retaining wall or a laid-back cut, and filling leaves soil that has to be compacted and tested. Either way, the reviewer wants to see existing and finished contours, the volume of soil moved, and how a new wall footing bears on undisturbed ground. When the cut is deep or the soil is loose, a soils engineer's report backs the design. We settle these items at the start, because a late change to pad height shifts the floor, the steps and the sewer depth together.
Water that leaves the pad
Around a new unit, finished ground should fall away from the walls so water does not collect at the slab edge. On a sloped lot, runoff from above the pad also needs a path, often a swale or a perforated drain at the base of the retaining wall that carries water around the unit. Gutters tie into downspouts that discharge to a splash block, a dry well or an approved outlet at the curb. The plan checker looks for each of these routes on paper, and the inspector looks for them again in the ground.
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Anywhere the setbacks allow and the ground can carry a footing without a tall wall behind it. A flatter shelf, even a small one, can trim retaining work considerably. We check where the cut would be shallowest, where the sewer can drain, and where a crew can still bring materials in.
A one-story unit that stays within 500 square feet qualifies. On a Burbank parcel with some grade, the structural sheet is where the footing and wall details live, and the plan checker reads it closely. Grading engineering and construction sit outside the package and are priced after the visit.
Moving soil and holding it back. A deeper cut means more excavation to haul away and a taller retaining wall with drainage behind it. Fill brings compaction testing. If the pad sits well above or under the house, a longer stair and a longer utility trench follow too.
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