A GUIDE TO BUILDING IN THE HILLS OF LOS ANGELES
Article #8: 809 Higgins Street – Retaining Wall Construction
We are working through the Baseline Hillside Ordinance to determine what we can build at the fictional property, 809 Higgins St. in the Hollywood Hills. Before we look at the rest of the provisions of the ordinance, let us build a retaining wall. As always, the ordinances are intended to preserve general intents and exceptions may be approved in individual cases.
Many hillside construction projects call for retaining walls to be built on the site.
We need to situate the house in the ground so that we can maximize our Residential Floor Area (RFA) while keeping within the Height Limits.
The Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) provides guidelines for retaining wall construction in A or R zoned Hillside Areas. It limits heights of single retaining walls at 12’. That is not enough for our site – we need about 20 feet of vertical height.
But the LAMC also allows for two 10’ walls nearly stacked on top of one another, for a total height of 20’ provided that the top 10’ portion of the wall is stepped back the minimum of 3’ from the bottom 10’.
A 15′ setback must also be provided between the house and the retaining wall. This is the result.
Note: The content in this article is for information only and it represents our interpretation of Los Angeles Zoning & Building codes. Current Los Angeles Zoning & Building Codes should be consulted for an in-depth understanding of the legal text contained in them, and building officials should be consulted as their interpretation of the Los Angeles Zoning and Building Codes may differ from ours.