Expert General Contractor in Santa Monica – HomeSense Construction & Remodeling

Last updated: September 2026

What we actually see on Santa Monica job sites

Santa Monica is its own permitting jurisdiction. Nothing in 90401 through 90405 goes to LADBS — plan check, permits and inspections all run through the City's own Building and Safety Division inside Planning and Community Development, and the process is now fully paperless. Every drawing, calculation and form is uploaded to the City's electronic plan review system before anyone stands at the Permit Services Center counter, and the counter itself runs a Monday-through-Thursday schedule. The practical consequence is about sequencing rather than difficulty: a set organized for paper redlines gets returned, and an appointment booked before the upload is complete is a wasted week. We build the submittal digitally from the first sheet.

The rule out-of-town contractors miss most often here is water. Santa Monica's Water Neutrality Ordinance, adopted by Council on 23 May 2017 and effective 1 July 2017, is codified at Santa Monica Municipal Code 7.16.050 and caps a project's water demand at the site's own historical five-year average. It expressly reaches new or enlarged pools, spas, water features and ponds. In real terms that means a whole-home remodel that adds a bathroom, or a rear-yard project that adds a spa, has to buy that water back — through fixture, appliance and irrigation retrofits on the same parcel, or through the City's offset mechanism. We price the offset during design, because discovering it at permit issuance is how a schedule slips a month.

The second thing we look up before quoting is the seismic list. Santa Monica's mandatory retrofit program, adopted 28 March 2017, is the most comprehensive in the region: five separate building categories — soft, weak or open-front wood frame, unreinforced masonry, non-ductile concrete, concrete tilt-up, and welded steel moment frame — with roughly 2,000 buildings identified citywide. If you own a 1920s-to-1970s duplex, fourplex or small apartment building, a remodel is very often the moment that obligation surfaces. When it does, the cheap answer is to fold the retrofit into the same permit, the same shoring and the same walls that are already open. Doing it as a second project two years later costs far more than the structural steel.

Two more Santa Monica-specific constraints shape scope. The city sits inside the coastal zone, so work seaward of the first public road, and anything in a mapped appealable area, can require a coastal development permit reviewed against the City's Local Coastal Program land use plan and, on appeal, by the California Coastal Commission — a review track with its own calendar that has to be started early, not bolted on. And on energy, the City's reach code (the 2024 Energy Performance Approach, which replaced the 2022 Zero Emission Buildings guide) pushes new construction toward all-electric. Even on projects that do not strictly trigger it we spec heat-pump water heating and leave 240-volt capacity at the range and the driveway, because the panel and the service are the expensive things to redo later. Demolition and renovation that disturbs asbestos-containing material also requires a South Coast AQMD Rule 1403 notification before work starts — web-submitted only since 1 November 2016, with an exemption below roughly 100 square feet of affected surface.

HomeSense services for Santa Monica homeowners

• ADU design and construction
• Home additions and expansions
• New construction
• Custom home building
• Roofing and cool roof installation
• Bathroom remodeling
• Whole-home remodeling
• Remodeling cost guides
• Full service area map
• Frequently asked questions

Sources & official references

• City of Santa Monica — Building and Land Use Permits — the permitting authority for 90401–90405. Santa Monica issues its own building, land use and encroachment permits; no residential submittal here goes to LADBS.
• City of Santa Monica — Building Permits and Plan Review — the electronic plan review system. Applications and drawings must be uploaded before a Permit Services Center appointment; the process is 100% paperless.
• City of Santa Monica — Seismic Retrofit Program — the mandatory program adopted 28 March 2017 covering soft-story wood frame, unreinforced masonry, non-ductile concrete, concrete tilt-up and welded steel moment frame buildings, roughly 2,000 properties citywide.
• City of Santa Monica — Water Self-Sufficiency and Water Neutrality — the Water Neutrality Ordinance (SMMC 7.16.050, effective 1 July 2017) capping project water demand at the site's historical five-year average, pools and spas included.
• California Coastal Commission — coastal development permit jurisdiction and appealable areas. Relevant to any Santa Monica project seaward of the first public road or within a mapped appeal zone.
• Contractors State License Board (CSLB) — verify any contractor's licence and bond before signing. HomeSense Construction & Remodeling holds CA Licence #1125001. CSLB also caps a residential down payment at 10% of the contract or $1,000, whichever is less.
• California Building Standards Commission — Title 24 — the code editions Santa Monica enforces, including the California Residential Code and California Plumbing Code, plus any city amendments adopted on top of them.
• California Energy Commission — Title 24 Part 6 — the statewide energy standards and the local reach-code authority Santa Monica uses for its Energy Performance Approach.
• CALGreen — Title 24 Part 11 — construction waste diversion, water-efficient fixtures and EV-ready requirements that apply to Santa Monica additions and new construction.
• US EPA — Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule — mandatory certified-firm containment for pre-1978 housing, which describes most of Santa Monica's north-of-Wilshire and Ocean Park housing stock.
• South Coast AQMD — Rule 1403 asbestos notification — the pre-work notification required for demolition and for renovation that disturbs asbestos-containing material. Web submission only since 1 November 2016.
• California ADU statute — Gov. Code 66310 et seq. — the statewide ADU and JADU floor, including 2026 updates under SB 1211 and AB 2533, that a city's local ADU ordinance cannot fall below.
• Southern California Edison — the electric utility for Santa Monica. Service upgrades, panel relocations and new meter sets are scheduled through SCE, not the City.