General contractor in Canyon Country

In ZIP 91351 the median home was built in 1982, about 45 percent predate 1980, and nearly 28 percent date from the 1950s and 1960s. In ZIP 91387, farther east, the median home was built in 1990 and about a third went up in 2000 or later. The two ZIP codes ask for different work, and a single page of advice would miss both. Sources: US Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, table B25034, ZCTA 91351. US Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, table B25035, ZCTA 91351. US Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, table B25034, ZCTA 91387. US Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, table B25035, ZCTA 91387

The west side leans toward updating older kitchens, baths and wiring. The east side leans toward yards, shade and extra space. Canyon Country also grew by annexation: in November 2018 the City took in about 3,118 acres, including Plum Canyon, Skyline Ranch and North Sand Canyon, so some permit history for those tracts still sits with the County and has to be requested there.

Source: LA County Planning, Santa Clarita annexation notice, 2018

Sand Canyon is a special standards district with its own rules. Two horses may be kept on a lot of 5,000 to under 15,000 square feet, and new development does not have to build curbs, gutters or sidewalks, though it must show all weather emergency access. Street lights go only at intersections, and gating a residential area needs a conditional use permit. Source: Santa Clarita Unified Development Code, Sand Canyon special standards district

Fencing is where owners run into it most. An open fence up to five feet is allowed in the twenty foot front setback, but a solid wall over three feet six inches is not. Before a new front wall or gate goes on the plans, we check it against the district, and concrete and hardscape in Canyon Country follows the same check, down to where a driveway meets the road.

Fence and gate plans in the district are drawn with the setback line marked, so the open and solid sections are placed where the rules allow them and the plan checker can see it at a glance.

The 2019 Tick Fire started at Tick Canyon Road and Summit Knoll Road, burned 4,615 acres and destroyed 22 structures. Fire shapes hillside work here: a hillside plan in a Very High fire hazard zone needs a fuel modification plan approved by the County Fire Department before it moves forward.

The hillside code also caps retaining walls at six feet in a side yard and eight in a rear yard, allows two terraced walls of up to four feet with five feet between them, and keeps exterior colors to earth tones. Work near a designated significant ridgeline needs an engineer's exhibit before anything is built there, and manmade features on the ridge need their own permit.

On a hillside lot in Canyon Country, the grading plan, the retaining walls and the fuel modification plan are drawn together, because each one changes the other two.

Sources: CAL FIRE incident page, Tick Fire, October 2019. Santa Clarita Unified Development Code, hillside development standards. Santa Clarita Unified Development Code, ridgeline preservation

All three parks the City designates as senior mobile home parks are on Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country. Altering a mobile home or manufactured home needs a permit before work starts, and the state housing department enforces park rules unless a city has taken that role over with the state's approval. A mobile home job starts by finding out which agency that is.

For a site built house, the first visit covers the lot, the district and the fire class. A kitchen remodel in Canyon Country is a common start on the older west side, and exterior painting in Canyon Country comes up often on the newer east side tracts. Either way, the scope and price are written before a single can is opened.