ADU Surveys in Berkeley, CA

Berkeley leaves less room for the survey question than any city in the East Bay: the building-permit submittal checklist for one- and two-family dwellings lists a survey requirement for all new construction — which means every new detached ADU — plus additions within 1 foot of a property line, additions within 6 feet without fire-resistive construction, and even new windows or wall openings within 4 feet of a line. On Berkeley's narrow flatland lots, where brown-shingle houses already crowd their setbacks, those distance triggers catch most attached-ADU and conversion projects too. The site plan itself must show the entire parcel with lot dimensions, easements and creeks, retaining walls, and underground utilities with connection points.

In the Hillside Overlay district the requirements escalate: zoning applications need a boundary and/or topography survey wet-stamped by a licensed surveyor, no more than five years old, with contour lines — and hillside ADUs are capped smaller than the citywide standard (850 square feet for a studio or one-bedroom, 1,000 for two or more bedrooms, against 1,200 citywide). Grading beyond 50 cubic yards adds a grading plan with existing and final elevations. Berkeley's Creeks Ordinance and Coast Live Oak Ordinance overlay all of it, and parcels near the Hayward fault trace draw extra site-documentation scrutiny. Our laser-scanned surveys handle the full stack in one visit: boundary, contours, walls, trees, and the neighboring structures that Berkeley's fire-separation and daylight-plane rules make relevant.

We deliver a stamped base map and layered DWG your designer builds on, with corners staked for construction. For terrain-driven hillside work, see our Berkeley topographic surveys; homeowners weighing an ADU condominium under Berkeley's ordinance will eventually need map and plan work a surveyor prepares as well.