New Construction · Los Angeles County
New home construction in Los Angeles County: tear-down rebuilds and custom homes by a licensed design-build team. Feasibility, permits, build, one contract.
Tell us about the house. A project manager will call to set up a walk-through.
Prefer to talk? Call (714) 449-9035
Los Angeles County has 88 cities, and each runs its own building department, so a new home in Manhattan Beach and one in Glendale follow the same state codes but very different zoning and review processes. The City of Los Angeles itself goes through LADBS, and unincorporated communities file through LA County Public Works and EPIC-LA.
The county’s geography drives a lot of the scope. Hillside lots in the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriel foothills and La Cañada Flintridge typically sit in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones and often need hillside grading review, retaining walls and deeper foundations. On the Palos Verdes Peninsula, parts of Rancho Palos Verdes have long-active landslide areas with added geotechnical requirements. In the South Bay beach cities, tear-down rebuilds on small lots are routine, and coastal zone permits apply near the shore. Since the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires, many Altadena and Pacific Palisades owners are rebuilding under current fire-zone and energy codes, which look very different from the codes their original houses were built to.
Los Angeles County is the other half of our core service area. We work with city building departments across the county, LADBS in the City of Los Angeles, and LA County Public Works through EPIC-LA for unincorporated communities. Hillside and fire-zone lots need the soils, grading, structural and wildland-urban interface details coordinated early, and our design-build setup keeps that under one contract and one project manager. Horizon is a licensed Class B general building contractor, active since 2009, with more than 1,500 projects completed and selections handled at our Horizon Design Center in Fullerton.
Each city page covers who issues the permit there, what the local housing stock looks like and what that means for your project.
It varies by city and by lot. A straightforward rebuild on a flat lot may clear plan check in a few months, while hillside, coastal or fire-zone properties and projects needing planning or design review can take considerably longer. Each round of plan check comments adds time, which is why we finish feasibility and engineering before submitting. We give you a permitting estimate for your specific lot after the feasibility review.
In most cases, yes. Building departments generally want a geotechnical report for a new house, and it’s required for lots in state-mapped liquefaction or landslide zones. The report covers soil type, expansive clay, fill, groundwater and slope stability, and the structural engineer designs the foundation from it. On sloped lots it also informs grading and retaining wall design.
New homes in CAL FIRE mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zones are built to wildland-urban interface standards. That means a Class A roof, ember-resistant vents, ignition-resistant exterior walls, eaves and decking, and multipane windows with tempered glass. The fire department may also review access and water supply. We check the fire zone map during feasibility so these details are in the design from the start.
Inside a city, permits come from that city’s building department. In unincorporated areas, the county’s own building and land use agency handles plan check, permits and inspections, and its zoning rules apply instead of a city’s. Requirements and review times differ between agencies, so we confirm which one has jurisdiction over your lot before design begins.
Planning new construction in Los Angeles County? Schedule a consultation or call (714) 449-9035.
Horizon Construction & Remodeling, Class B General Building Contractor.
