Condo Conversions in Lafayette, CA

Lafayette is the one Lamorinda community where condominium mapping is more than an occasional request, and the reason is the downtown corridor along Mt. Diablo Boulevard. The city’s residential fabric is wooded, large-lot, and overwhelmingly single-family — so existing-building conversions are genuinely uncommon — but the downtown has seen mixed-use and multifamily infill, and new-construction condominium projects there need the full mapping package: a subdivision map processed under the Subdivision Map Act through the city, and a condominium plan under the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act defining units, common area, and exclusive-use areas such as balconies, storage, and parking stalls. For mixed-use buildings, the plan also has to cleanly separate commercial condominium space from residential units — a three-dimensional drafting problem that rewards precise as-built geometry.

That is where our workflow differs from conventional practice. We scan the entire structure with a Trimble terrestrial laser scanner in one site visit, capturing floor slabs, wall planes, ceiling heights, and exterior envelope as a millimeter-accurate point cloud. For a conversion of an existing duplex or small apartment building, that means the unit boundaries in the plan match the building as it stands; for new construction, it means the final condominium plan reflects what was actually built rather than the permit set, catching the slab-elevation and wall-location drift that construction always introduces. The same dataset yields CAD floor plans and BIM-ready deliverables for the architect and the HOA’s records.

Lafayette’s review environment is exacting — the city runs strict residential design review and enforces ridgeline and hillside development rules on its Orinda Formation slopes — so applications supported by complete, surveyor-stamped mapping move more smoothly. Maps and condominium plans record with the Contra Costa County recorder after review by the county surveyor, and we handle that map-check cycle end to end, along with the underlying boundary and topographic work on creek-corridor and hillside parcels where site constraints shape the project.