Building in the City of Los Angeles

Last verified against LADBS sources: September 2026. LADBS changes its systems, forms, and fees; confirm current requirements with LADBS before relying on anything below.

This page is a guide to the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, LADBS, written by a licensed general contractor (CSLB #1077837) that has permitted dozens of projects through it. It covers how the department's permit process works in general. Ten of the neighborhoods we serve sit inside the City, and each one has its own page for the local detail; they are listed near the end of this page.

Check ZIMAS first

Start by looking the address up in ZIMAS, the City's parcel lookup. LADBS notes that if a property does not appear in ZIMAS, it may not be in the City of Los Angeles, and another agency is its building department. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica are separate cities with their own building departments, and unincorporated areas fall under Los Angeles County Public Works. The County's online service locator shows which agency serves a given address.

For a property inside the City, ZIMAS also shows the zoning, and whether the parcel sits in a Hillside Area, a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, the Coastal Zone, or a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Every one of those changes what happens next.

Sources: ZIMAS; LADBS, About the Construction Process; City Planning, Zoning Search; City of Los Angeles recovery FAQ (Coastal Zone field); LAFD Brush Clearance FAQ (fire zone field); LA County Public Works, Online Service Locator; LA County Building and Safety; City Planning, Application Filing Instructions (Hillside Area in ZIMAS); City of Beverly Hills, Building & Safety; City of West Hollywood, Building and Safety; City of Santa Monica, How to Get a Building Permit

Express, Counter, Expanded Counter, or Regular

LADBS issues permits in one of four ways: an Express Permit, with no plan check, or one of three plan check tracks, Counter, Expanded Counter, or Regular. Which one a project lands on depends on its scope, not on who is applying.

Express Permit

No plan check. Express Permits cover work such as a residential kitchen or bathroom remodel with no structural changes, replacing windows and doors with ones of the same size and type, re-roofing with Class A or B materials (Class A inside a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone), replacing plumbing fixtures, and rewiring electrical outlets. They are issued online through PermitLA or by appointment at an LADBS counter, and can be issued the same day.

Counter and Expanded Counter Plan Check

For simpler projects that do need their plans reviewed. A Counter Plan Check is done in person, by appointment, at an LADBS office, and the review takes roughly 45 to 60 minutes; LADBS lists a one-story addition to a single-family house among the projects that can go this way. Expanded Counter Plan Check covers somewhat larger work, such as a medium-size home addition.

Regular Plan Check

New houses and large, complex projects go through Regular Plan Check. The plans can be uploaded through ePlanLA or submitted at any LADBS Development Services Center, and are reviewed over a period of weeks, depending on the department's workload. Paying 50 percent more on the plan check fee gets the review expedited.

Both PermitLA and ePlanLA require an Angeleno account.

Sources: LADBS, Plan Review & Permitting; LADBS, Homeowner Step-by-Step; LADBS Information Bulletin P/GI 2026-003, Express Permits; LADBS, Counter Plan Check; LADBS, Regular Plan Check; LADBS home page (Angeleno account); LADBS FAQ, “Can I get my permit same day?”

Preliminary Plan Check

Before submitting, you can book a Preliminary Plan Check: a meeting of up to an hour and a half with a plan check engineer to answer questions about the code requirements for a project. It is requested through a Case Management Service Request, LADBS staff contact the applicant within five business days to schedule it, and the fee is $208 plus surcharges. On a complex build, it can save a correction cycle later.

Source: LADBS, Preliminary Plan Check

Four overlays that change the timeline

In our experience, a standard residential plan check runs weeks. A hillside, HPOZ, or Coastal Zone property can stretch that into months, because each one brings another reviewer into the process, and a fire zone adds its own construction requirements to what plan check has to confirm.

• Hillside. The Baseline Hillside Ordinance limits grading. Hillside grading needs a soils engineer's and an engineering geologist's investigation unless LADBS waives it, grading plans signed by a registered civil engineer, and review by the LADBS Grading Division, which usually needs the soils and geology reports before it will issue permits.
• HPOZ. In a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, work has to be reviewed by City Planning's HPOZ staff, and for larger projects the district's HPOZ Board, before permits can be issued: a Certificate of Appropriateness, a Certificate of Compatibility, or a Conforming Work sign-off, depending on the scope. Hancock Park is an HPOZ, and so are several districts in Hollywood, including Whitley Heights, Spaulding Square, Sunset Square, Hollywood Grove, and Melrose Hill.
• Coastal Zone. A Coastal Development Permit, or a Coastal Exemption, from City Planning. In the dual permit area closest to the water, a second permit comes from the California Coastal Commission. Parts of Pacific Palisades and Venice are in the Coastal Zone.
• Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. The state's wildfire construction standards apply, now set out in the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, including a Class A roof, ember-resistant vents, noncombustible or ignition-resistant exterior walls, and multi-pane windows with at least one tempered pane. LAFD describes the zone as covering most of the hilly and mountainous areas of the City.

For how these play out in specific neighborhoods, see our pages on Hancock Park, Bel-Air, and Pacific Palisades.

Sources: Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 12.21 C.10 (Baseline Hillside Ordinance); Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 91.7006 (grading permits); LADBS Grading Division; LADBS Grading Plan Check Correction List; City Planning, Historic District Project Review; City Planning, Hancock Park HPOZ; City Planning HPOZ pages for Whitley Heights, Spaulding Square, Sunset Square, Hollywood Grove, and Melrose Hill; City Planning, Coastal Development Permit application; City of Los Angeles recovery FAQ (Coastal Exemptions, Palisades Coastal Zone); City Planning, Venice Local Coastal Program; California Coastal Act, Public Resources Code Section 30601; 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, Chapter 5; LAFD, Fire Zone History

Why permits take longer than anyone quotes

In our experience, plan check almost never approves a set of plans on the first pass. LADBS reviews the plans and issues corrections; you revise and resubmit, and the department verifies the corrections before it issues the permit. If the revisions raise new questions, the cycle repeats. LADBS does not publish a typical number of rounds; in our experience, two to three is normal, and each round adds weeks.

The review covers more than one discipline. Plan check engineers look at the structure and at the plumbing and electrical systems, and zoning review checks setbacks, height, and lot coverage. Green Building review applies to new construction, to additions and alterations that increase a building's conditioned volume, and to alterations valued over $200,000, and approvals from other departments, such as Fire, may be needed on top of LADBS. Those reviews do not always happen at the same time, and a structural correction can change enough of the drawings to send the whole set back. Sources: LADBS FAQ, What is a plan check?; LADBS FAQ, the permit process; LADBS, About the Construction Process; LADBS, Green Building Code

What reduces the number of rounds: a Preliminary Plan Check before submittal, complete drawings the first time, and a contractor who has seen the corrections that usually come back. For how the City's process compares with Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica, see our Los Angeles building permits guide.

LADBS inspections and Deputy Inspectors

LADBS inspects at set points, and the Building Code lists them in order: the foundation, before concrete is placed; the wood framing, once the framing is complete and the pipes, vents, and ductwork are in place; the wall covering, once lath or drywall is up and before plaster or taping; and the final. Reinforced concrete, masonry, and structural steel get their own inspections where a house has them. Work cannot be covered or concealed until it has been inspected and approved, so the inspection has to be requested before anything is closed up.

Some work also needs a Deputy Inspector, in addition to the City's own inspections. A Deputy Inspector is registered by LADBS but employed by the owner or the owner's design professional, is never paid by the City, and watches specific structural work while it is being done. LADBS requires one for field welding, certain post-installed concrete anchors, concrete designed stronger than 2,500 psi, structural masonry, and wood shear walls nailed at 4 inches on center or closer; ordinary house footings designed at 2,500 psi or less do not need one. For this structural work, the trigger is the type of work, not the neighborhood; separately, certain grading and foundation earthwork in hillside areas also calls for a Deputy Inspector. LADBS's wood special inspection rule covers Seismic Design Categories C through F, and LADBS classifies buildings in the City as Category D, E, or F, so the shear wall rule applies across the City. On our garage ADU conversion, the rebar connections into the existing concrete were inspected by a Deputy Inspector before anything was poured over them.

Sources: LADBS, Inspection; Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 91.108 (Inspections); Los Angeles Municipal Code Sections 91.1704 and 91.1705 (Special Inspections); LADBS Plan Check Correction Sheet for Structural Design (2026 LABC); LADBS, Employment and Duties of a Registered Deputy Inspector; LADBS Information Bulletin P/BC 2026-044

Where we build in the City of Los Angeles

These neighborhoods are all inside the City of Los Angeles, so LADBS is the building department for each of them. Each page covers the local detail: the overlays, the lot types, and what they mean for a project.

• Bel-Air: Hillside estate lots north of Sunset Boulevard.
• Brentwood: Single-family neighborhoods from the flats up into the canyons.
• Holmby Hills: Large estate lots between Beverly Hills and Westwood.
• Westwood: Condominiums and single-family streets around UCLA.
• Century City: High-rise condominiums and the single-family streets around them.
• Beverlywood: Single-family streets just south of Beverly Hills.
• Hollywood: Homes in the Hollywood Hills and the older neighborhoods below them.
• Hancock Park: A Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, so exterior work goes through HPOZ review.
• Sherman Oaks: A San Fernando Valley neighborhood, from flat streets to hillside lots.
• Pacific Palisades: Coastal and hillside lots, and the post-fire rebuild rules that apply to them.

Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Malibu are not on this list. Each is a separate city with its own building department, its own local code amendments, and its own review process, and LADBS has no role there.

Common questions

Do I need a permit for a kitchen remodel in Los Angeles?

Yes. A residential kitchen remodel with no structural changes qualifies for an Express Permit, with no plan check. It is available online through PermitLA or by appointment at an LADBS counter, and can be issued the same day. Structural changes, or anything that adds square footage, need plan check.

How long does LADBS plan check take?

An Express Permit can be issued the same day. A Counter Plan Check takes about an hour at the counter. Regular Plan Check runs weeks, depending on the department's workload, and longer with each round of corrections. A hillside, HPOZ, or Coastal Zone property adds another reviewer, such as the LADBS Grading Division, City Planning, or the Coastal Commission, and extends it further.

What is the difference between LADBS and Beverly Hills?

They are different cities. Beverly Hills has its own building department, its own amendments to the building code, and its own review timeline, and the same is true of West Hollywood and Santa Monica. A permit from one city does not apply in another.

What is a Deputy Inspector?

A special inspector who is registered by LADBS but hired by the owner, not paid by the City, and who watches specific structural work as it happens. LADBS requires one, in addition to its own inspections, for work such as field welding, certain concrete anchors, higher-strength concrete, structural masonry, and wood shear walls nailed at 4 inches on center or closer.