Service areas and permit jurisdictions

Three permit instruments in the right-of-way

An A permit covers repair or reconstruction of curbs, sidewalks, driveway approaches and gutters where the work matches existing grades without a survey or engineered plans. A B permit covers extensive improvements, including retaining walls, sewers and storm drains. An R permit is the revocable one, for a structure that encroaches and stays.

Retaining walls over two feet in the right-of-way

A revocable permit for a wall over two feet requires a B permit for approval of plans and structural calculations. The standard plans cover walls up to six feet; above that, or where the soil cannot carry the toe pressure, the design goes to structural review.

Stacked block walls are not allowed

On private property, walls built from wood, rubble or stacked blocks, including pre-manufactured blocks stacked on one another, are not allowed unless they carry a current Research Report from the Engineering Research Section, or an Evaluation Report from an approved publishing agency.

The exemption fails on a slope

The exempt wall may not be built where the existing slope below or beneath it is steeper than one vertical to five horizontal, a twenty percent slope. Where several walls replace one existing slope, a permit is required if that slope is steeper than twenty percent.

Drainage cannot cross a property line

Surface drainage concentrated or redirected by a wall must reach the public street by non-erosive devices, and no cross-property drainage is permitted. Walls and subdrains sit within the property, and no grading is permitted on adjacent land.

A hillside condition that arrives with the permit

Where the roadway fronting the property is less than twenty feet wide, the owner is required as a condition of the R permit to widen it to a minimum paved width of twenty feet, which may include curb and gutter. A land survey must accompany the application.

Protected trees answer to a third body again

A permit to relocate or remove a protected tree comes from the Board of Public Works, not from the Bureau of Engineering or from Building and Safety. Protected means an oak, Southern California black walnut, western sycamore or California bay of four inches cumulative diameter measured four and a half feet above the ground, and the scrub oak is expressly excluded.

Removing a tree illegally can freeze building permits for ten years

Where a protected tree has been removed in violation of the code, the Bureau of Street Services may ask the Superintendent of Building to withhold building permits on that property for up to ten years, and to revoke any permit where construction has not started. The notice is recorded with the County Recorder, so it travels with the title.

The fees are published, and they are not small

An application to remove or relocate a protected tree carries a non-refundable application fee of $805.99 and a non-refundable inspection fee that begins at $2,892.48 for one or two trees, rising to $5,982.58 for six to ten. Replacement runs at four specimens for each tree removed, and anything over two trees goes to a full public hearing at the Board.

Grading stops for the wet season

Grading is prohibited from 1 October through 15 April unless the City Engineer determines that soil conditions are suitable and that adequate and effective erosion and sediment control measures will be in place throughout. The default position is closed for six and a half months of the year.

Five grading bands, set by the slope before work starts

Below ten percent, earth may be redistributed over large areas. Between ten and twenty, landforms must retain their natural character and split-level design is required. Between twenty and thirty, ridgelines, bluffs, rock outcroppings and natural drainage ways must keep their natural form. Above fifty percent, development is to be avoided.

Paving near an oak counts as altering it

No oak tree may be altered without an oak tree permit, and altering expressly includes excavating or paving within the protected zone. That zone begins five feet outside the dripline and is never less than fifteen feet from the trunk, or fifty feet for a heritage oak. An oak tree is a Valley Oak or California Live Oak of four inches diameter at breast height or greater, or a scrub oak over one inch.

Oak removals accumulate against the parcel

The director may approve removal of up to three living oaks under six inches each and twelve inches aggregate, counted cumulatively for the parcel rather than for the project. A notice is then recorded against the property, so a previous owner's removals reduce what the current owner may do.

Wall height is set by which way the wall faces

An individual retaining wall is capped at six feet, and an outward-facing wall in the front setback at four. Terraced or tiered walls must sit at least four feet apart horizontally. A wall retaining a grade change of thirty-six inches or less is exempt from a land use permit where Title 15 requires no grading permit.

Driveway geometry is regulated in the code

Minimum width is sixteen feet, or twenty where the driveway slope exceeds ten percent. Average slope is capped at seventeen percent with no portion over twenty, and no driveway may exceed three hundred feet unless there is no other feasible location to site the structure.

There is no city building department to call

Westlake Village contracts building and safety to Los Angeles County Public Works. Anyone expecting the sequence they went through in a neighboring city will be dealing with a different organization, different offices and a different record system.

Neighboring cities in the same county do not share it

Calabasas and Agoura Hills sit in Los Angeles County and are not contract cities. Both run their own departments under their own municipal codes, so being in the county does not predict which authority holds the file.

Removing an oak goes to the City Council

A protected tree permit is approved by the City Council at a noticed public hearing, not by a planner over the counter. Only trimming, and encroachment into the protected zone that an arborist finds will not harm the tree, can be approved administratively by the Director.

Paving and trenching count as damaging the tree

Damage is defined to include paving, changing the natural grade, trenching, excavating or building within five feet beyond the dripline or fifteen feet from the trunk, whichever is greater. A protected oak is one of four inches diameter, stated as twelve and a half inches of circumference measured four and a half feet above mean natural grade.

Replacement is bonded for five years, and the clock restarts

Between one and four replacement trees may be required for each oak removed, at a minimum twenty-four inch box, secured by a bond guaranteeing survival for five years. If a replacement dies inside that window it must be replanted and the five years begin again. Each individual tree damaged is a separate offense.

Graded slopes are covered within thirty days

Every graded area steeper than ten percent must be revegetated, and all slopes covered within thirty days of grading being completed with jute netting, a geotextile or a similar device, unless a registered soils engineer requests otherwise in writing. Planting must reach ninety percent coverage in the first year.

Work in the highway runs on the county's ordinance

The city adopted Title 16, Division 1 of the Los Angeles County Code as its own Highway Permit Ordinance rather than writing one. So the rules for working in the street here are the county's rules, which is the same pattern as building and safety.