Licensed General Contractor in richmond Since 2007

Richmond handles everything in house through Planning and Building Services at 450 Civic Center Plaza. Planning entitles the project; Building issues the permit and inspects. Planning approval on its own does not let you start work, and the project has to meet the building standards in force when the permit application is submitted, not when the design was drawn. Applications now run through the city's iMS portal.

Official info: Richmond Planning Division

Richmond's ADU approval is ministerial, meaning no discretionary review and no public hearing, and the Planning Division reviews against objective standards only. Planning has 60 days from a complete application, with fees paid, to determine compliance. It runs in two steps: planning approval first, then the building permit. A junior ADU is a conversion of up to 500 square feet contained entirely within the existing house.

Official info: Richmond ADU requirements

This is the one most quotes never mention. Richmond has a rent ordinance covering rent control and just cause eviction, and an ADU creates a rental unit that sits somewhere inside it. The municipal code puts a properly permitted second unit outside both, where the owner is the primary resident of the main house. Two conditions, and both matter: an unpermitted conversion does not qualify, and neither does a property you have moved out of. Covered rentals carry enrollment and fee obligations on top. Confirm your own position with the Rent Program before you build.

Official info: Richmond Rent Program

Richmond strongly encourages applicants to contact their neighborhood council before a project goes to the Design Review Board or the Planning Commission. Few cities suggest this and fewer applicants do it. The council is where opposition forms, and a project that has already been explained there usually arrives at the hearing with fewer objections and fewer conditions attached.

Official info: Richmond planning applications

New homes, and additions over 1,000 square feet to an existing one, must hit minimum green point totals under the Build It Green rating system. A completed checklist goes on the plan set with an index signed by the architect, pointing to the drawing or note that satisfies each measure claimed. Since 2010 every design review application has needed the checklist too, and compliance is verified again before occupancy.

Official info: Richmond green building requirements

Richmond adopted the 2025 California Building Standards with a local amendment adding a section specifically for legalizing residential construction. That matters here, because older Richmond houses frequently turn up converted garages, enclosed porches and finished basements nobody permitted. Unpermitted work generally has to be resolved before new work is signed off, so it belongs in the records check at the start rather than at final inspection.

Official info: Richmond Building Division

Richmond sits between the Hayward and San Andreas faults, and a great deal of its housing predates modern seismic detailing. Older houses commonly need the frame bolted to the foundation and cripple walls braced. California runs an Earthquake Brace and Bolt grant program that can cover part of that cost on qualifying houses, and it is worth checking before you pay for it out of the remodel budget.

Official info: Earthquake Brace and Bolt program