Los Angeles County · Zoning setbacks
City of Los Angeles setback requirements
Lekua resolves a parcel’s jurisdiction and zone, then draws this envelope on the base plan, offset from the county’s parcel line, with its citation. Yards are measured from the surveyed line, so confirm against a survey before siting anything near them.
The envelope
What the numbers below make on the ground. City of Los Angeles sets one bracket across the one-family R districts, so this is the whole rule rather than one district of several.
Zone R1 — the envelope Lekua draws on the plan.
- Front
- 20′
- Side
- 5′
- Rear
- 15′
The hatched band is the yard — ground the code gives up. Drawn not to scale: the yards are proportional to each other, so the deepest one fills the band and the rest follow. The dimensions carry the real numbers, and the export draws them on the actual parcel outline.
City of Los Angeles setbacks by district
Every row is produced by the same function the exporter calls, so this page cannot drift from what the drawing gets. The citation under each row is what prints on the sheet.
LAMC §12.08 C (R1 One-Family): front 20 ft, side 5 ft each, rear 15 ft. lot depth unavailable, so the percentage-of-depth branch could not be computed and the cap is drawn — a shallower lot requires LESS; lot width unavailable, so the narrow-lot branch could not be computed and the 5 ft base is drawn — a lot under 50 ft wide requires LESS. LAMC front yards are also subject to prevailing-setback averaging — where developed lots whose front yards vary by no more than 10 ft make up 40% or more of the frontage the minimum becomes their average — a rule NOT DRAWN here because it needs the neighbours’ built front yards, which this pipeline does not hold, so the ring above is the zone’s own minimum. For a building over two storeys LAMC adds 1 ft to each side yard per storey above the second, a rule NOT DRAWN here because it turns on the PROPOSED building’s height rather than on the parcel, so the side ring above is the two-storey figure. LAMC §12.08 C.2(a) also requires a 5 ft offset/plane break on any side wall over 14 ft high running more than 45 ft, a massing rule NOT DRAWN here because it shapes the building rather than the yard, so the side ring above is the plain setback. Lot width and depth are estimated from parcel geometry. Verify with LA City Planning.
What the export says about this table
City of Los Angeles residential base zones reviewed against LAMC 12.07-12.12 (re-captured verbatim 2026-09-19): RA and RE fronts 20% of depth and rears 25% of depth, each to a 25 ft cap; RS front 20% to 25, rear 20; R1 and R2 front 20% to 20, rear 15; sides 10% of lot width within each zone's range, or the zone's flat figure. Not computed, cited at the parcel: the prevailing-front block average, per-storey side additions, RA's pre-1966 narrow-lot relief, R3's key-lot front. Hillside Area lots (membership from the City GeoHub boundary snapshot of 2026-09-27, or an -HCR suffix) in R1, RS, RE and RA take Table 12.21 C.10-1 (LAMC 12.21 C.10, captured 2026-09-27 from the current section text and panel-reviewed the same day); the table's Substandard-Hillside-Limited-Street front, height-based side additions and R1 plane break are disclosed, not drawn. RE9/RE11 side yards draw 5 ft inside the California Coastal Zone (Coastal Commission boundary layer) and 7 ft outside it. Setbacks are withheld on Title 22 Setback District parcels; (T)/(Q) conditions are flagged in the citation, not withheld. Commercial and industrial zones are not captured.
Printed verbatim on every City of Los Angeles export — the same words the reviewer signed off, not a summary of them.
Setbacks are one layer of the City of Los Angeles base plan
The same address search returns the parcel boundary, 1–2 ft contours, building footprints, CAL FIRE defensible-space zones, the soil profile, four-season sun, and a native plant palette matched to the site. See everything Lekua resolves in Los Angeles County →
City of Los Angeles setback FAQ
What are the residential setbacks in City of Los Angeles?
In R1 the code sets a 20 ft front yard, 5 ft sides, and a 15 ft rear yard. The full table is below, transcribed from LAMC §12.08 C with the citation attached to every row. This table has passed independent review, so Lekua draws the setback envelope on the base plan for a City of Los Angeles parcel.
Does Lekua draw the setback envelope for City of Los Angeles?
Yes. City of Los Angeles is one of the jurisdictions whose table has passed review, most recently on 2026-07-25, so the envelope is drawn on the DXF and PDF base plan, with its citation.
Where do these City of Los Angeles setback numbers come from?
They are transcribed from the adopted code — LAMC §12.08 C — and this page renders them by calling the same function the exporter calls, so what you see here is what the drawing gets. Zoning changes; verify against the current code and with the planning department before submittal.
Can I get a CAD base map for a City of Los Angeles parcel?
Yes. Enter any City of Los Angeles address and Lekua returns a layered DXF base plan and a PDF site report — county parcel lines, fine contours (1–2 ft on demand, or the county’s own where it publishes them), building footprints, CAL FIRE defensible-space zones, soil, seasonal sun, and a native plant palette matched to the parcel, alongside zoning. See what else resolves in Los Angeles County.
Start with a City of Los Angeles address
Free to search. The zone resolves from the parcel, not from the mailing address.