Mill Valley Home Design & Remodeling

Mill Valley building permits tend to be issued faster than their county jurisdiction counterparts. The City averages between 6-10 weeks for project plans to be reviewed.

Not all permits are created equal, so depending on the type of project you may wait only a week for a simple over-the-counter permit, vs additional months for a new-build home that requires more departments to review the project.

Time in permitting is not lost time. We plan our projects so during permitting we produce many details and dial in specifications so that your contractor can hit the ground running once your permit is approved.

Mill Valley is easily accessible and therefore relatively easy to develop new-build construction, however some of its steeper hillside lots can prove to be more difficult to get to with large vehicles and a geotechnical hurdle to overcome.

Despite this, many factors can still affect the economic feasibility of building new versus remodeling. Most notably in our opinion aging properties normally require extensive remodeling, to the extent that it may ultimately be cheaper to reconstruct portions of a home. Often times, the labor involved in working around troublesome found conditions can sometimes be more expensive than the cost in materials to start over.

As this question might require heavy consideration depending on the project, we can determine what the best path for you is through a Building Feasibility Study in the early stages of a working together.

After a free consultation to evaluate the scope of the project, a total design fee will be created on a flat fee basis. This flat fee is then split up between the different phases of the project, giving you financial runway as we work through the project.

2024 saw the adoption of state-wide regulations that aimed to ease the housing crisis by making the construction and use of Accessory Dwelling Units more flexible. This included expedited timelines for permit review, and relaxed building setback, height and parking requirements. However there are still site-specific constraints that may make an ADU untenable, so before design begins we would advise using a Building Feasibility Study to outline design parameters.

We certainly do! Before we embark on any project we will always offer a free consultation so that we can get to know each other and see if we’ll be a good fit. If so we’ll be happy to provide design services, including consultation, for projects big or small.