General Contractor in Woodside

Woodside is San Mateo County, rural in character, with significant tree protection and many parcels on septic and well rather than municipal services. Those are real engineering considerations, not footnotes, and they belong in the budget from day one.

There is a second permit here that people forget to schedule. Fire protection is the Woodside Fire Protection District, which covers Woodside and Portola Valley both, and it runs its own plan review and issues its own fire construction permit. The District puts that review at roughly 14 days, and it runs alongside the Town's building review rather than inside it. A schedule built on the building permit alone is short by that much.

And the District's own ordinance is more restrictive than the state maps. It states plainly that its defensible space requirements apply in all zones, not only the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. So “we are not in a Very High zone” is not the end of that conversation here, and California Building Code Chapter 7A construction — the ignition-resistant assemblies for roof, eaves, vents, siding, decking and glazing — is a cost line to establish before design, because it changes materials rather than just adding a step.

One practical note. Woodside adopted the 2025 California Building Codes effective 1 January 2026, which brings the current Wildland-Urban Interface and CALGreen chapters with it. And the counters are narrow: Planning is Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 12:00, and Building is Monday to Thursday, 8:30 to 11:30. That is a twelve-hour week to get a question answered in person, which is a real argument for getting the submittal right the first time.

Permits. Work in Woodside is permitted through the Town of Woodside's building department. We carry the submittal and the plan-check corrections — that is our job, not yours.

Woodside approves ADUs on a building permit alone, but review runs through the Town, the Woodside Fire Protection District and San Mateo County Environmental Health. On a septic parcel that last one is not a formality.

Pre-approved ADU plans. Woodside runs a pre-approved ADU plan program and is still building out its public gallery. 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.