Your ADU Contractor in Moorpark

Ask the builder what Moorpark's ADU ordinance says. The right answer is almost nothing: MMC 17.28.020(G) is one sentence that defers to state law, and HCD's October 2025 letter found the city's last filed ordinance dates from 2019. A builder quoting old local limits, or the city page's 5-foot setback as law, is drawing to the wrong rulebook. The second question is trees and slope, because Chapter 12.12 and Chapter 17.38 apply to the lot whatever zoning allows. Master Construction designs, permits and builds ADUs across Moorpark under Lic. #1027281, family owned since 1994, with the trades on our own crews.

Type sets the first tier: a garage conversion reuses walls and a roof, a detached unit buys its own slab, frame and roof, a JADU lands between them. Size comes next, with the state's 750 sq ft line deciding whether impact fees apply. Then the site: whether the main panel carries a subpanel or needs an upgrade, trench length to the lateral, the Waterworks District capacity charge, a fire-zone lot's WUI exterior package, an oak survey, grading on a cut-and-fill pad. A free city standard plan trims design; a custom set adds it back. Finishes close the list. We walk the lot, then write a fixed-price scope.

Two halves. As of 2026 the city has 15 business days to confirm a complete application, 60 days from that point to approve or deny, and 30 days when a detached unit uses a Moorpark standard plan. The city typically returns a first plan check in ten working days and resubmittals in five. Ventura County Fire, Waterworks District No. 1 and the school district count as permitting agencies under the same clocks, and an HOA committee runs on its own calendar, so we file everything at once. Construction is typically a few months for a garage conversion and longer for a detached unit. Both halves get dates before you sign.

Yes, three of them, free. The Building & Safety Division posts a 700 sq ft plan, a 900 sq ft two-bedroom, two-bath and a 1,188 sq ft three-bedroom, two-bath, all single-story on a slab and dated 2022. They cover structural design only and act as rough floor plans. Plan check still requires Ventura County Fire approval, Waterworks District approval, a Moorpark Unified School District fee certificate, a site plan with setbacks, solar, MEP plans, Title 24 forms, and high-fire construction standards on a mapped lot. The city page also rules out a floodplain or a slope. State law gives a standard-plan unit a 30-day decision once the application is complete.

Yes. Most post-1983 Moorpark houses carry an attached two- or three-car garage, and state law lets it convert with no replacement parking, no new setback and up to 150 sq ft of added floor area for an entry. The work is what a garage lacks: insulated walls and ceiling, a floor over the slab, egress windows, a kitchen and bath drained to the existing lateral, and a subpanel off a main panel that may already carry EV chargers. A converted garage needs no new solar. Where an HOA reviews the street face, the garage door becomes a wall with a window, drawn for the committee alongside the city set.

Often, with three checks first. The 2025 fire maps effective July 1, 2025 place the Highlands and the hill edges in Very High hazard zones; a detached unit there uses the Wildland-Urban Interface Code exterior package, dual-pane tempered glazing and 100 feet of defensible space. The city's ADU page says a unit cannot go on a slope, and Chapter 17.38 restricts grading above 20 percent, so a level pad must exist within those limits. Protected oaks and mature trees under Chapter 12.12 need a permit before removal, and injuring one is prohibited. A parcel straddling two zones takes the higher one. A JADU inside the house sidesteps most of it.

Yes, for terms of 30 days or longer. State law sets that floor on the by-right detached unit and any JADU and lets the city apply it to every ADU; Moorpark writes the same rule into its SB 9 section. No owner-occupancy requirement attaches to a standard ADU, so an owner who lives elsewhere can build and lease one; a JADU carries one only when it shares a bathroom with the house. The city cannot record a deed restriction against your ADU as a condition of approval, as HCD told Moorpark in 2025. We found no separate-sale ordinance in Moorpark, so the unit stays with the house at sale.

No. Civil Code 4751 makes any CC&R provision that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an ADU on a single-family lot void and unenforceable, and Civil Code 714.3 applies the same rule to deed covenants; since mid-2025 a reasonable restriction under 714.3 cannot include fees or other financial requirements. HCD's letter adds that an HOA cannot influence the city's own approval. A board in Mountain Meadows, Peach Hill, Campus Hills or the Highlands keeps reasonable architectural review: roof pitch, paint, exterior finish and placement that do not add unreasonable cost or block the unit. We prepare the committee package alongside the city set. Old Town and Varsity Park have no committee.

Yes, under one contract. The feasibility read comes first: fire zone, slope, oak canopy, floodplain, main panel capacity, lateral route and whether a city standard plan fits the lot. Design-build follows, with the budget updated at each drawing pass and the permit set built for the SHOP portal, while the Ventura County Fire, Waterworks District and school district sign-offs file in parallel. Our own crews then run the concrete, framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, roofing and solar through final inspection with the desk at 323 Science Drive. You get a single schedule and a fixed price that holds from drawings to keys. Call (805) 667-8800 to start with the feasibility read.