Zoning and Feasibility
Feasibility Review
Before You Design
Most expensive mistakes in a residential project happen before the first drawing. The lot is bought on an assumption about what it allows, or the design is drawn to a number the zoning does not support, and the plan check finds out. A feasibility review puts the answer first.
What it covers
- Zoning and overlays. The base zone, the specific plan or community standards district if one applies, hillside and historic overlays, and the state ADU and SB 9 rules that override local limits.
- The envelope. Setbacks, height, floor area, lot coverage, parking, and the open-space rules for the project you have in mind: an ADU, an addition or second story, a new home, two to four units, or an SB 9 split.
- Site conditions that change the answer. Slope and the hillside rules that come with it, easements and utility clearances, fire access, flood and fault zones, and septic or sewer.
- The approval path. Whether the project is ministerial or discretionary, which department decides, what the application needs, and the decision clocks the state sets.
- The disqualifiers. The one or two facts that would stop the project, named plainly, before any design fee is spent.
What you receive
A written review, usually within two weeks of receiving the property information, with the code sections cited and the next step stated: proceed, change the scope, or walk away. The review has its own fee, quoted in writing, and it is not a free first step. If you go ahead with design, the review becomes the first chapter of the project.
What we need from you
The address, the assessor’s parcel number if you have it, any survey or plans you hold, and a sentence on what you want to build. Buyers in escrow should send the preliminary title report.
Who uses it
Owners deciding between an addition and an ADU. Buyers in escrow on a hillside or SB 9 lot. Investors weighing two to four units. Owners who have been told no once and want to know whether the answer was right.