Custom Home Builder in Bel Air

The slope. The Baseline Hillside Ordinance governs single-family zones in the City's mapped Hillside Area. It sums the allowable floor area slope band by slope band, so the steep parts of a lot carry less house than the gentle ones, and it calls for a Slope Analysis Map, prepared by a registered civil engineer or licensed land surveyor, to measure those bands. LADBS determines whether the ordinance applies to your project. I read the parcel on ZIMAS before we meet so we start from the real envelope.

The soils. A hillside house stands on its foundation, and the foundation stands on the geotechnical report. Caissons, grade beams, retaining walls, and drainage are drawn from that report. I bring the geotechnical engineer into the design team early, because a foundation redesign at plan check costs months.

The street. Bel Air streets are narrow and they wind. For a new home on a lot fronting a Substandard Hillside Limited Street with a roadway narrower than 20 feet, the code withholds the building and grading permits unless the project is approved under Section 12.24 X.21, and the route to your driveway is checked as well. I measure the street, plan the delivery route, and size the trucks before the schedule is set.

1. Lot reading and site walk. Zoning, hillside status, street frontage, and permit history first. Then I walk the lot with you and talk through what the slope allows.

2. Design team. Your architect designs the house; your structural and geotechnical engineers design what carries it. I review for constructability, sequencing, staging, and access while the drawings are still drawings.

3. Approvals and plan check. LADBS plan check through ePlanLA, with any planning approval the lot needs first. I work the corrections with your team and keep the submittal complete. I never promise approval dates, because the City sets them.

4. Written scope and agreement. You approve the written scope and the agreement before any work starts. Each payment stage ties to a named milestone you can verify on site.

5. Build. Grading and shoring, foundation, framing, roof and envelope, systems, finishes, each with its City inspection. Licensed trades handle the specialty work. You get site photos as the work moves, and any condition that changes the scope reaches you in writing the day I find it.

6. Final inspection and handover. LADBS signs off, we walk the house together, close the punch list, and I hand over the documents for everything we built.

Every truck on a Bel Air street passes someone's gate. Material arrives in loads sized for the road, crews park where the site allows rather than on the curve, and debris leaves covered. Neighbors hear about crane and pour days before they happen.

A hillside home is priced by its foundation, its access, its structure, and its finishes. I put a written number on a defined scope after the site walk and the plan review. Share the budget range you plan in the build request below, and I will tell you early whether the design and the budget agree.