General Contractor in Los Gatos

Los Gatos runs from flat in-town lots to genuine hillside parcels. Hillside changes the job: geotechnical work, drainage and access all become real cost drivers, and they belong in the estimate at the start rather than as a change order later.

If your parcel is inside the Town's Hillside Area, the rules are a separate document and they are strict. Architecture and Site approval is required for all new construction there, including major additions and remodels — a discretionary approval that has to happen before a building permit, not alongside it.

The single most consequential question is whether your house can be seen. Under the Town's review process, a new house that meets the allowable floor area ratio and is not visible from an established viewing area can be approved by the Development Review Committee. Visible, and it goes further up. Visibility also drives the height limits directly: 25 feet is the hillside maximum, the tallest elevation is capped at 35 feet, that drops to 28 feet if the house is visible from a viewing platform, and ridgeline and visible homes are held to 18 feet above grade. Three-story elevations are prohibited outright, and the main level finished floor, cellar excluded, has to sit within four feet of existing grade.

Two more that shape a hillside build. The building footprint has to be staked on site, not just drawn on the grading plan, so the Town and your neighbours see the real position before approval. And the wildfire standards are design standards rather than a checklist at the end: minimal eave overhang, fewer and smaller windows on the elevation a fire would approach from, tempered or multi-layer glazing on skylights. Those are material decisions, so they belong in the first budget.

Tree removal here carries a canopy-based replacement standard set by the Town Arborist, with in-lieu payment to the Town Tree Replacement Fund where an equivalent replacement is not possible. The Town says outright that it recommends talking to staff before any plans are drawn. On a Los Gatos hillside lot that is not politeness, it is the cheapest hour in the project.

We work throughout Los Gatos — whether you're in Downtown Los Gatos on Santa Cruz Avenue, the Almond Grove district, the Los Gatos foothills, or the Vasona Lake area, the build is the same standard.

Permits. Work in Los Gatos is permitted through the Town of Los Gatos Building Division. We carry the submittal and the plan-check corrections — that is our job, not yours.

Los Gatos merged its ADU review into a single application form and one plan review across the Planning and Building Divisions, rather than two separate submittals.

Pre-approved ADU plans. Los Gatos does not publish a pre-approved ADU plan gallery that we could find. Ask the Town of Los Gatos Building Division directly before you assume there is nothing to build from, because these programs are being added city by city. Since AB 1332 took effect on January 1, 2025, California cities have had to run a pre-approved ADU plan program and post the approved plans publicly. Where a usable plan exists it can take real time and design cost out of a project, because the design has already been reviewed and only the site-specific work is left.