LADBS vs. Burbank, Glendale and Beverly Hills: How Your City Changes a Remodel

Which city is your house actually in?

The City of Los Angeles is the default across the Valley: Van Nuys, Valley Glen, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Northridge, Granada Hills, Lake Balboa and the Hollywood Hills are all neighborhoods of one city, permitted through LADBS. Burbank, Glendale and Beverly Hills are independent cities with their own codes and counters. The lines are not where people expect: Toluca Lake addresses fall on either side of the Los Angeles–Burbank boundary, and "Beverly Hills Post Office" addresses in the hills north of the city line carry a Beverly Hills ZIP code but sit inside the City of Los Angeles. ZIMAS settles it for any Los Angeles parcel; each city's GIS map settles the rest, and we check before anyone draws a plan.

Permits by city at a glance

What stays the same everywhere

California writes the building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical and energy codes (Title 24), and every city adopts them with local amendments. A beam is sized the same way in Burbank as in Van Nuys; Title 24 lighting and insulation rules apply in Glendale as in Encino; state ADU law, with its ministerial review, 60-day clock, 4-foot setbacks and no-replacement-parking rule for converted garages, binds all four cities. The contractor's license is the same CSLB license, and the home improvement contract rules are the same state law. What differs is the local layer.

What changes: the counter, the clock and the overlays

The counter. LADBS runs a large system with express permits for non-structural kitchens, bathrooms and re-roofs, plan check for structural work and additions, and the pre-approved ADU standard plans. The three smaller cities run smaller counters where a reviewer may know your street, and their express paths and submittal formats differ. We file electronically where the city allows it and in person where it does not.

The clock. Plan check for a ground-floor addition runs about 6–12 weeks at LADBS from a complete submittal; the smaller cities run on their own calendars, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, and a Toluca Lake project on the Burbank side of the line runs on Burbank's clock. ADUs are the exception: every city must act within 60 days of a complete application.

The overlays. The Baseline Hillside Ordinance is a City of Los Angeles rule for sloped lots; Burbank, Glendale and Beverly Hills have hillside standards of their own. Historic review works the same way: Los Angeles has HPOZ districts, Glendale its historic district overlays, Burbank and Beverly Hills their landmark and design review processes. In every case the review looks at the exterior that faces the street, not at the kitchen.

The utility. A 200-amp service upgrade goes through LADWP in Los Angeles, Burbank Water and Power, Glendale Water & Power or Southern California Edison in Beverly Hills, each with its own application and lead time, and that lead time often sets the kitchen schedule more than the permit does.

What every submittal needs, whatever the city

The package is the same in all four cities, because the state codes set it: a site plan with the lot, the setbacks and the existing and proposed footprints; floor plans and elevations; a structural set with calculations where a beam, a foundation or a second floor is involved; Title 24 energy forms for new conditioned space, windows, lighting and insulation; and the owner's authorization for the contractor to file. ADUs add the state ADU checklist and, inside the City of Los Angeles, the option of a pre-approved standard plan. What differs is the format and the counter: LADBS takes most residential submittals electronically, the smaller cities each have their own portal or counter, and a complete package on the first try is what keeps every clock short.

ADUs: one state law, four counters

State law makes ADU review ministerial in all four cities, so a code-compliant unit cannot be denied or sent to a hearing. LADBS adds its pre-approved standard plans, which shorten a detached unit's review inside the City of Los Angeles; the other three cities review ADUs under their own ordinances within the same state limits. The garage conversion vs. detached ADU guide covers the rules; the city only changes where you file them.

The two addresses that fool people

Toluca Lake straddles the Los Angeles–Burbank line. The same street can have parcels in both cities, with LADBS and LADWP on one side and Burbank Building & Safety and Burbank Water and Power on the other; construction is identical, the permit path is not, and we confirm the parcel at the first visit. Beverly Hills Post Office addresses, in the canyons north of the city, are City of Los Angeles parcels with a 90210 ZIP code: they permit through LADBS, often under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, not through Beverly Hills City Hall. The permits guide walks through a Los Angeles submittal step by step.

What we recommend

Find out which city your parcel is in before you plan anything, then let the city's layer shape the plan: the hillside rules on a sloped lot, the historic overlay on a street-facing exterior, the utility's lead time on a panel upgrade. Right Image Builders files, answers corrections, schedules inspections and closes permits with all four departments as part of every fixed-price contract, so the counter is our problem rather than yours. The permits section of our FAQ answers the questions we hear most.

Sources (checked October 2026): Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, plan check and permit information; City of Burbank Community Development Department, Building and Safety Division; City of Glendale Community Development, Building and Safety Division (Permit Services Center); City of Beverly Hills Community Development Department; ZIMAS parcel lookup (zone, floor-area limit, hillside and overlay flags for any City of Los Angeles address); California HCD ADU Handbook (state ADU law: ministerial review within 60 days, setbacks, parking, size limits, rentals of 30 days or more); Right Image Builders service and neighborhood pages (2026 planning ranges, timelines, permit authorities). Cost figures are Right Image Builders' 2026 planning ranges from its service and neighborhood pages.