Excavation in North Hollywood
North Hollywood, known as Toluca and then Lankershim before 1927, began as orchard land whose early farms relied on a high water table along the Tujunga Wash. It is flat valley floor with no City-designated Hillside Area, and state maps put more than half of it in liquefaction zones.
North Hollywood has no City Hillside Area and no state landslide zones, and that simplifies the permit picture. In the City of Los Angeles, excavation for a basement, footing or pool covered by a valid building permit does not need a separate grading permit outside hillside areas. Standalone grading follows the citywide threshold. A cut under two feet deep, or one that leaves no slope over five feet high and steeper than 1:2, can be exempt, but not once it passes 50 cubic yards or changes how the lot drains. We confirm which side of that line a job falls on before we quote it.
The town went by Toluca, then Lankershim from 1896, before taking the North Hollywood name in 1927, and its first orchards, planted in 1888, depended on the high water table along the Tujunga Wash. The state draws its liquefaction zones where historic groundwater sat less than 40 feet down in loose, young sands and silts, and more than half of North Hollywood is inside them. For an ADU pad or addition, that history tends to show up in the soils report and the foundation design.
Flat lots make long utility runs straightforward to dig, but the rules still apply. Trenches five feet or deeper need cave-in protection, and if a worker has to go into one, California also requires a Cal/OSHA excavation permit. Before any of it, a DigAlert ticket has to be active, called in at least two working days ahead. A sewer lateral that reaches into the street is a separate matter: the Bureau of Engineering permits it, and a new lateral in the street must be built by a City-bonded sewer contractor. Our trenching work stops at the property line unless that is arranged. A small share of the neighborhood is also in the City’s methane zone or buffer, which a pool deck or new slab can bring into play.
Studio City lies just to the south, and Sherman Oaks is a short drive west.
Excavation and grading across the Los Angeles area:
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