Establishing the Building Footprint for a Pacific Palisades Fire Rebuild

One of the first and most important steps in designing a Pacific Palisades fire rebuild is determining exactly what existed on the property before the fire. This can require more research than many homeowners expect, especially for older homes that may have been expanded or altered over several decades. Original plans may be incomplete, additions may have been permitted years later, and Assessor records may not perfectly match what existed immediately before the fire.

Before beginning design, we try to assemble as complete a record as possible using LADBS permits, Certificates of Occupancy, archived plans, County Assessor records, surveys, aerial imagery, historic photographs, Google imagery and any other available documentation. The goal is to establish a defensible pre-fire building footprint, building height and general configuration before designing the replacement home.

Part 1: EO1 and the Like-for-Like Rebuild

Under EO1, an eligible like-for-like rebuild may generally increase the previous building footprint and building height by up to 110%. One of the most important distinctions is that this is not simply a 110% increase in the previous square footage of the home.

Building footprint and Residential Floor Area, or RFA, are two different measurements. The building footprint generally represents the area occupied by the building when viewed from above, while RFA is a calculation of the usable floor area within the home under the applicable zoning rules. This difference can become especially important when the original house had a large first floor but only a partial second story.

Early in the rebuilding process, many homeowners assumed that if their former home was 4,000 square feet, EO1 would allow them to rebuild approximately 4,400 square feet. In some cases that may be close, but the actual EO1 analysis is based primarily on footprint and height rather than simply multiplying the previous floor area by 110%.

For example, we are currently designing a rebuild where the original house had a large first-floor footprint with only a partial second story. Once the allowable footprint increase is established, the replacement home may be able to use much more of that footprint on the second level. A home that was previously approximately 3,500 square feet could potentially become closer to 5,000 square feet, provided the design remains within the allowable EO1 height and other applicable requirements.

This is why establishing the pre-fire footprint correctly can be so important. The former square footage alone does not always tell the full story.

Height, however, is often the more restrictive part of the EO1 analysis. A house that was already two stories may offer significantly more flexibility than a low one-story home. If the previous residence was one story, adding a conventional second story will usually exceed 110% of the former building height and push the project outside the EO1 like-for-like category.

Another useful aspect of EO1 is that the new house does not necessarily have to reproduce the exact shape of the former home. The footprint may generally be reorganized within the allowable limits, which can create opportunities to improve circulation, room proportions and the overall relationship between the house and the site.

Part 2: When the Rebuild Falls Outside EO1

If the proposed house exceeds the EO1 footprint or height limits, the property may still be eligible for an expedited fire-rebuild process, but the project will need to comply more closely with current zoning requirements.

On a relatively flat lot, this can be fairly straightforward. We review the zoning, setbacks, allowable height, Residential Floor Area and any other applicable development standards.

Hillside properties are more complicated because allowable RFA may depend on a slope-band analysis. A topographic survey is used to identify the different slopes across the property, and each slope range is assigned a factor under the City's hillside regulations. Those calculations ultimately determine the allowable Residential Floor Area for the site.

This means two hillside properties with the same lot size and zoning can have very different allowable floor areas depending on their topography. For that reason, we typically want the topographic survey and slope-band analysis completed early so that the design starts with a realistic understanding of the development envelope.

LA County & LADBS

There is also a separate issue that homeowners should understand: property-tax assessment. The City's EO1 rules and the County Assessor's reconstruction rules are not the same test. EO1 deals with the City's development standards, while the County and State apply separate rules when determining whether a reconstructed property retains its previous Proposition 13 base-year value or whether a portion of the new construction may be reassessed.

The County's analysis can be particularly important for Pacific Palisades homeowners because many of the destroyed homes were decades old and had assessed values far below today's market values. Construction costs, building codes and the quality of a newly rebuilt home can also be very different from the original residence. For homeowners considering a substantially larger or significantly different rebuild, we recommend discussing the potential property-tax implications with the County Assessor and a tax professional early in the process.

Before beginning design, these are some of the questions we want to answer: What exactly existed before the fire? What can we document? What was the verified building footprint and building height? Was the home one story, two stories, or partially two stories? Can EO1 provide a more advantageous development envelope than current zoning? If the project falls outside EO1, what does current zoning allow? Is a slope-band analysis required? And could the proposed rebuild create future property-tax implications?

The more complete the research is at the beginning, the more confidently we can establish the development envelope and design the new home around the opportunities that actually exist.