Malibu Custom Home Builder & Fire Rebuild Contractor
Malibu is its own city with its own Local Coastal Program. The approval path here looks nothing like the rest of Los Angeles County.
Permits Issued By
City of Malibu Building Safety and Planning
Fire Review
Los Angeles County Fire Department
Licensed Contractor
CSLB #1055448 · Class B, General Building Contractor
Building in Malibu
What's Different
Here
Malibu incorporated its own building and planning departments and administers a Local Coastal Program certified by the California Coastal Commission. Practically, that means a project here answers to coastal policy on top of the Building Code: siting, height, bulk, view corridors and environmentally sensitive habitat all get looked at before anyone talks about framing.
We have run estate renovation and coastal work in Malibu from planning through final inspection. The lesson every time is that the approval path, not the construction, sets the schedule. Design decisions made in the first month determine whether the project takes the exempt route or the long one.
- 01
The disaster-replacement CDP exemption
State law exempts the replacement of a structure destroyed by disaster from the standard coastal development permit requirement, provided the rebuild keeps the same use, stays within a limited margin over the prior floor area, height and bulk, and sits substantially in the same location. The margin is measured against bulk, not just square footage, so a taller design can spend the allowance you were planning to put into floor area. Confirm current thresholds with the City before you design to them.
- 02
Most of Malibu has no sewer
Outside the Civic Center service area, Malibu properties run on private onsite wastewater treatment systems. Siting, soils and percolation shape where the house can actually go, and the system review runs on its own timeline. On a rebuild it is the item most likely to surprise an owner who assumed the old system simply carries over.
- 03
Fuel modification is a plan review, not an inspection
LA County Fire reviews a fuel modification plan for properties in mapped hazard areas (the zoned landscape buffer around the structure) as part of approvals, with defensible space verified before final. It is a drawing that has to be produced and approved, and it constrains the landscape design.
Our Work in Malibu
Malibu Estate
A comprehensive renovation of a Malibu estate property, executed with custom millwork, stonework, and site improvements throughout. Coastal-zone work rewards a builder who knows the approval path — we managed the full scope from planning through final inspection.
View the full projectStraight Answers
Malibu Questions
- Do I need a coastal development permit to rebuild?
- Not always. Rebuilds that replace a structure lost to disaster and stay close to the original use, size, bulk and location can qualify for a statutory exemption. Growing the house, moving it on the lot or adding height can push the project back into full coastal review. The distinction is worth settling before the architect starts drawing.
- Can you work on a hillside or bluff lot?
- Yes. Hillside work is structural coordination before it is anything else: geotechnical, foundation design, drainage and access. We self-perform the core trades, so the crew doing the foundation is our crew, under our supervision.
- Who will be on my jobsite day to day?
- Zuma crews. We self-perform foundation, framing and finish with our own people and equipment. Specialty trades are long-standing partners who work to our standard, not whoever was available that week.
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