ADU Builder & Contractor in Glendale, CA

Glendale reviews ADUs under its own ordinance and through its own Building & Safety Division, ministerially like the rest of California, but with Glendale's zoning code, Glendale's hillside rules and Glendale Water & Power connections instead of LADBS and LADWP. The flat lots around Adams Hill, the Verdugo Woodlands and Sparr Heights are 6,000–9,000 sq ft with a detached garage, which converts to a 400–480 sq ft unit; the canyon lots in Glenoaks and Chevy Chase need the slope and the access designed first.

The typical site is a flat 6,000–9,000 sq ft R1 lot with a detached garage, or a canyon lot where slope and access decide the design. What decides between a garage conversion, a JADU and a detached unit is that lot, the sewer route and the main panel: 60- to 100-amp panels in the prewar and 1950s houses; a 200-amp Glendale Water & Power service upgrade is part of most full kitchens. Every unit gets a full kitchen and bath, its own sub-panel and, for a detached unit, its own address.

One contract covers the whole job: a licensed architect draws the plans, a structural engineer stamps them, we file with the City of Glendale and answer the corrections, and our own crew builds through final inspection and the Certificate of Occupancy. Our office is in Valley Glen, about 20 minutes away, and the project lead who does the feasibility visit runs the build.

Glendale is its own city, with its own Building & Safety Division, its own utility in Glendale Water & Power and its own zoning code, which is the first thing to know about remodeling there. The neighborhoods run from the flats around Brand Boulevard and Adams Hill up into Rossmoyne, the Verdugo Woodlands, Sparr Heights and the canyons of Glenoaks and Chevy Chase, with Metrolink at Glendale station on Cerritos Avenue and the Beeline buses across town. Our office is in Valley Glen, about 10 miles west by the 134, a 20-minute drive; the permit center is at 633 E. Broadway downtown.

No replacement parking is required when a garage converts, and the state exemption from impact fees for units under 750 sq ft applies in Glendale as everywhere else; what changes is the submittal: Glendale's own plan-check list, its hillside regulations on the foothill parcels and historic review where a lot sits inside a district overlay. We check the zoning on the city's parcel map, the panel, the sewer route and the overlay at the feasibility visit, and file at 633 E. Broadway.

An ADU in Glendale is permitted through the City of Glendale Building & Safety Division under ministerial review, which approves a code-compliant unit without a public hearing, and the utility connections go through Glendale Water & Power (GWP). Units under 750 sq ft pay no impact fees, a garage conversion needs no replacement parking, and the unit can be rented on leases of 30 days or more once the Certificate of Occupancy is issued.