Construction documents and plan check in Los Angeles
Multifamily sets drawn for the City of Los Angeles review process, and taken through LADBS plan check and the agency clearances to the issued permit.
The studio's home jurisdiction
TECTO Studio is based in Los Angeles, and most of the founder's record is in the City. Fourteen of the nineteen projects in the project record are City of Los Angeles buildings, from Pacoima and Northridge to San Pedro: 100% affordable buildings, mixed-use projects under the state density bonus, transit-oriented projects, condominiums and a series of single-family houses, up to 1,241 units. Across them, the founder's work included entitlement, design, consultant coordination and LADBS permitting, with the scope varying by project.
For a practice with a multifamily set on the boards in the City, the studio draws the set in your Revit model and takes it through the review process that decides when the permit is issued:
- Construction documents and design development drawn on your template, to the Los Angeles codes.
- Plan check corrections answered on the sheets, keyed to the LADBS correction sheet.
- Los Angeles permits: the clearances of the other City departments, tracked and cleared through to issuance.
Your architect of record keeps design, direction, review at every issue, responsible control and the stamp.
The review process a Los Angeles set goes through
The Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) reviews multifamily sets, most of them electronically through ePlanLA. Screening checks the package for completeness under LAMC 91.106.3, plan check returns a correction sheet, and verification of the corrections leads to plan check approval. The plan check corrections guide sets out each step, the file rules ePlanLA sets for a drawing set, and the 18-month plan check period with its six-month extensions under LAMC 98.0603.
Plan check approval alone does not issue the permit. Every clearance on the application's clearance worksheet has to be signed off first: City Planning for the conditions of approval, the Fire Department for hydrants and access, the Bureau of Engineering for dedications, the sewer and the frontage, LA Sanitation for stormwater, and others depending on the site. The clearances guide takes the departments one by one, with what each reads from the drawings.
What makes a Los Angeles multifamily set distinct
Two zoning codes
The City adopted a new Zoning Code, Chapter 1A of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, in October 2024. It applies first in the Downtown Community Plan area and reaches the rest of the City through community plan updates, so until the whole City is rezoned, two zoning codes are in effect: the original Chapter 1 and the new Chapter 1A (Los Angeles City Planning, New Zoning Code). The zoning analysis on the set has to name the right one for the parcel.
Density bonus and affordable projects
A large share of multifamily work in the City uses the state density bonus (Government Code 65915), which the City now implements through its State Density Bonus Program in LAMC 12.22 A.37, in effect since February 11, 2025 (City Planning). On those projects the set shows the bonus: the base and bonus unit counts, the affordable units and their distribution, and the incentives and waivers the approval grants, drawn so the reviewer can find each one. The clearance handbook requires a density bonus sign-off from City Planning and from the Housing Department before the permit is issued (LADBS Building Permit Clearance Handbook). The density bonus guide sets out what the bonus changes in the drawings.
The Fire Department's own plan check
Beyond the hydrant and access clearance, the Fire Department's plan check division reviews apartment and condominium buildings over two stories or over 15 dwelling units, and high-rise buildings over 75 feet, according to the clearance handbook. The fire and life safety sheets of a Los Angeles set are drawn for two reviewers, LADBS and LAFD.
California accessibility, Chapters 11A and 11B
Multifamily sets in California follow the accessibility chapters of the California Building Code: Chapter 11A for privately funded multifamily housing and Chapter 11B for public accommodations and publicly funded housing, with many mixed-use and affordable projects touching both. The 11A and 11B guide covers how that shows up on the unit plans and the site.
The Los Angeles codes
LADBS reviews to the Los Angeles codes, the City's amendments of the California Building Standards Code. The counter plan check correction sheet, revised April 2026, cites the 2026 edition of the Los Angeles Building Code (LADBS counter plan check correction sheet). A set that let its plan check expire moves to the edition in force at that time, which is why the plan check dates belong on the project calendar.
Working with the studio on a Los Angeles set
The first engagement is a pilot: one package on a live set, or one round of plan check corrections on a set already filed with LADBS. A one-page scope letter fixes the sheet list or the correction items, the fee, the start date and the delivery date before any work starts.
Practices elsewhere in the state can see California, and practices in New York, Chicago and other markets can see New York, Chicago and beyond.