Brentwood in the city's community plans
Brentwood occupies the eastern portion of the City of Los Angeles' Brentwood-Pacific Palisades Community Plan area, with Pacific Palisades to the west. The community plan sets the broad land use pattern, but the zone on your parcel, whether it lies in a designated Hillside Area and any overlays determine the size and shape of a new house.
We start every Brentwood project by pulling the parcel's zoning information from ZIMAS. That check tells us early which floor area rules apply, whether hillside grading limits are in play, and whether the lot sits in a fire hazard zone or a specific plan area.
Flatter lots and the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance
Single-family lots outside a designated Hillside Area fall under the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance, which the city amended in 2017. For R1-zoned lots it caps residential floor area at 45 percent of the lot area, while lots in other single-family zones, such as RE and RS, follow their own ratios.
For R1 lots, the 2017 changes also introduced an encroachment plane that starts 20 feet above grade at the front and side setback lines, so upper floors step back rather than rising straight from the setbacks. Covered parking keeps its full 400 square foot exemption only when it sits in the rear half of the lot or at least 55 feet from the front lot line, and only porches, patios and breezeways with a lattice roof stay outside the floor area count. These details often decide where the garage goes and how the second story is massed.
Canyon lots north of Sunset
Lots in a designated Hillside Area follow the Baseline Hillside Ordinance instead, which limits both residential floor area and grading based on lot size. Canyon parcels typically also need a geology and soils investigation, engineered retaining walls and a foundation designed for the slope, so we bring the geotechnical engineer in before the plan is settled.
Exporting large amounts of soil adds a separate approval. When a project in a Hillside Grading Area will move more than 1,000 cubic yards of earth on or off the site, the haul route goes to a public hearing before the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners, and LADBS lists a processing time of at least eight weeks. City Planning's page for the Brentwood-Pacific Palisades plan area also lists the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan among its overlays, so we confirm in ZIMAS whether an upper canyon parcel falls within it.
Fire zone construction in the canyons
Brentwood's hills have a real fire history. LAFD records that the 2019 Getty Fire, located at 1800 North Sepulveda Boulevard in Brentwood, burned 745 acres, destroyed 10 residences and damaged 15 more. In January 2025, the city issued a mandatory evacuation order for the Palisades Fire covering the area from Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir, between the 405 Freeway and Mandeville Canyon.
LAFD lists portions of Brentwood among the communities within the city's Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, which takes in most of the city's hilly and mountainous areas, so parts of Brentwood's hillside canyons may fall inside it. LADBS requires new buildings in a Very High or High zone to comply with the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code as amended by the city, including a Class A roof assembly and flame and ember resistant vents, and LAFD requires owners in the Very High zone to keep hazardous vegetation cleared within 200 feet of structures. Fire hazard severity zone maps were updated in 2025, so we check the current map for your parcel before exterior materials are chosen.
Rebuilding after the January 2025 fires
If a Brentwood home was substantially damaged or destroyed in the January 2025 wildfires, the Mayor's Emergency Executive Order No. 1, as revised, offers an expedited path for rebuilding within the City of Los Angeles. It covers projects that repair, restore or replace a damaged property, and a qualifying rebuild keeps the same use, stays in substantially the same location and may not exceed 110 percent of the original footprint and height. Because the order has been revised more than once, we confirm its current terms with you before a rebuild is designed.
Trees, the site and how we build
Mature trees are part of what makes a Brentwood lot, and some are protected. Native oaks other than scrub oak, Southern California black walnut, western sycamore, California bay, Mexican elderberry and toyon at four inches or more in cumulative diameter cannot be removed or relocated without a permit from the Board of Public Works, so we locate them on the survey before siting the house.
Our Laurel View Residence in the Hollywood Hills sits on a steep site where the house, terraces and an infinity-edge pool step down the slope, with structure, glazing and the pool edge coordinated so each level lines up with the view. On a Brentwood canyon lot we plan the same way, with one team responsible for engineering, permits and construction, and a written scope and price in place before work starts.