#1 ADU Contractor in Covina
Custom Builds by Horizon Remodeling

Finding the right adu contractor in Covina means working with someone who understands both California’s updated ADU statutes and the specific housing conditions on your block. The state moved its ADU law into Government Code sections 66310 through 66342 in 2024, and another round of changes took effect January 1, 2026. Square footage is now measured as interior livable space. A local agency has 15 business days to determine whether your application is complete, then 60 days to approve or deny it. Approval is ministerial, meaning no public hearing and no discretionary design review.

For homeowners in Covina, that application goes to the City of Covina Building and Safety Division. One detail worth raising early: the city’s Planning Division administers a historic preservation ordinance and plan. Properties designated as a historic landmark or structure of merit carry review requirements that do not apply to the general housing stock. If your parcel falls into that category, the process looks different from the start, and we factor that in before the first line is drawn.

Most of Covina’s residential parcels are a product of the postwar building boom that replaced the city’s orange and lemon groves with tract housing after incorporation in 1901. The result is a large inventory of single-story ranch homes on former grove land, often with a closed-off kitchen, a long shallow floor plan, and a garage positioned close to the rear setback. That layout shapes nearly every ADU decision: where a detached unit can sit, how far utilities need to run, and whether a garage conversion or a new build is the more practical answer. We walk every parcel and check setbacks, grade, equipment access, and utility routes before drawing anything.

Los Angeles County has 88 incorporated cities, and the permit counter changes from one to the next even where state rules do not. The county’s own ADU ordinance, amended in July 2025, was found non-compliant with state law by the California Department of Housing and Community Development in December 2025. Among other findings, it caps detached ADUs on a multifamily lot at two where state law permits up to eight. That ordinance governs unincorporated territory rather than incorporated cities like Covina, but it is a useful reminder that a local handout is not always current with the statute.

Several protections apply regardless of where the parcel sits. A local agency cannot cap an ADU below 850 square feet of interior livable space, or below 1,000 square feet for a unit with more than one bedroom. Side and rear setbacks cannot exceed four feet. Owner-occupancy cannot be required as a condition of building an ADU. Construction of the unit cannot trigger a fire sprinkler retrofit of the main house. And there are no impact fees on any unit of 750 square feet or less. We keep these baselines in view from the first site visit through permit submittal.