General Contractor in Highland, CA

What should a Highland homeowner know before hiring a general contractor, with a 1987 incorporation, CAL FIRE protection and the City's own building policies?

Highland is a young city on an old townsite. The original townsite was surveyed in 1891 and recorded in 1893 on a citrus and railroad economy, with a 1903 population of over 1,000, a row of packing houses along the rail line, a packinghouse boom in the 1920s and a disastrous freeze in 1937. Suburbs arrived in 1943 with the San Bernardino Army Air Depot, later Norton Air Force Base, and spread east only to City Creek. East of the creek the large subdivisions came in the 1980s with the East Highlands Ranch planned community, and Highland incorporated in November 1987 as San Bernardino County's eighteenth city, after residents reacted to San Bernardino's eastward growth. The City's 2006 General Plan Land Use Element says over 60 percent of its 11,948 acres is planned residential and more than 20 percent open space. Census Bureau ACS 2020 to 2024 five year estimates count 16,795 housing units, give or take 536, and the 1980s are the largest decade at 3,789 units, or 22.6 percent. About 53.5 percent of units went up from 1980 through 2009, about 43.8 percent predate 1980, about 22.2 percent predate 1960 and only 4.2 percent date from 1939 or earlier. The table lumps 1978 with 1979, so we state no pre-1978 count. About three in four units, 75.2 percent, are detached houses, renters occupy 35.9 percent of homes and the median owner value is $485,600. The oldest stock sits in the Historic Village District around Palm Avenue and Base Line, protected by Village Residential zoning, and in East Highland Village, where 5,000 square foot lots date from the citrus-laborer era. An exterior change to a designated resource or a home in a historic district can need a certificate of appropriateness before the permit.

Highland issues its own permits. The Building & Safety Division works from City Hall, keeps counter hours Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with no Friday hours posted, and answers at 909-864-6861, extension 232, though older City handouts print two other numbers, so use the one on the current web page. Applications go through the City's online permit portal at any hour, staff say a completeness check takes one to three business days with most handled the same day, and a new structure goes through Planning first. A residential submittal asks for three plan sets, two sets of reports and, for new construction and additions, a fire flow test report from East Valley Water District. How long plan check takes depends on which City document you trust: a December 2021 flow chart says 10 business days for the first review and 5 after, and the June 2023 Housing Element says the first check takes no more than 2 weeks. Treat both as targets and ask the counter. Inspections run Monday through Thursday, plus alternate Fridays that are mornings only. Ordinance 477 (2025) adopts the 2025 California codes. Under Municipal Code 15.04.030, a residential permit goes invalid if work has not begun in 365 days or stops for 180 days between inspections, while a January 2020 City bulletin still says 180 days to begin. Starting without a permit costs an extra investigation fee, set equal to the permit fee. The City's pages list no fee amounts, so we print none. Construction is barred before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and on City or federal holidays. The City's own Municipal Code page returned a 403 when we asked, and we did not work around it. So the code language quoted here was read on GoCodebook, an unofficial mirror with a text date of October 4, 2026, and every section number needs a check with the City.

The eleven trades meet that counter in different ways. A roof repair or replacement needs no permit only under 10 percent of the roof or 100 square feet, whichever is less, anything over 50 percent brings the whole roof up to current code, and Policy 230 asks for an engineer's stamped load calculations before clay or concrete tile replaces a shake or shingle roof. Window replacement needs a permit in many cases by the City's own bulletin, and every bedroom must keep an escape opening. A kitchen remodel skips the permit for cabinets, counters, tile and paint, but sinks, electrical items and drywall pull one in, and two City pages disagree about swapping a sink like for like. A bathroom remodel runs into Policy 330, which bars green or purple water-resistant gypsum board in shower surrounds. A room addition starts with Planning clearance, then has to fit R-1 numbers: 40 percent lot coverage and side yards of 5 and 10 feet. An ADU gets a ministerial decision within 60 days of a complete application, yet the planning-review path excludes high fire severity zones and septic lots, and building-permit-only types follow state law. Planning can tell you which path applies to your lot. House painting needs no building permit, though South Coast Rule 1113 caps coating VOCs and an older house calls for lead-safe work. Flooring installation of carpet or tile is exempt, yet a moved drain or circuit is not, and old tile adhesive deserves an asbestos test. A fence of wood, vinyl, chain link or metal can reach 6 feet without a permit, masonry only 3 feet, and Policy 355 requires reinforcing in every residential retaining wall, exempt or not. Concrete work for driveways and walks is exempt when it stays within 30 inches of grade, though Policy 290 asks you to call the grading inspector before flatwork that might block an engineered flow line. A deck skips review at 200 square feet by the Municipal Code, 120 on the City's older web page, when it is detached, within 30 inches of grade and not serving the exit door.

Then come fire, water, ground and air. In the Safety Element, a very high fire hazard severity zone covers the northeastern corner of Highland and all land east of Weaver Street and north of Greenspot Road, and the East Highland station stands inside it. Fire service comes from CAL FIRE, Battalion 1, under a City contract with three stations, not from San Bernardino County Fire and not from a stand-alone city department, even though the Municipal Code still says Fire Department. The City posts the State Fire Marshal's March 25, 2025 zone map and says it must adopt the map by ordinance, but we found no adoption date, so only the City's Fire Marshal can name your lot's zone. The 2025 WUI Code applies with Highland additions: no eave-type attic vents, 12 foot vehicle access to within 10 feet of static water such as a pool or tank, and a fuel modification area never narrower than 100 feet when the fire authority requires one. Municipal Code 16.40.450 adds noncombustible fences inside those areas. The Old Fire of 2003 ran across more than 90,000 acres in and around Highland and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes, and the Line Fire, which began on September 5, 2024 along Base Line near Alpine Street, burned 43,978 acres and brought evacuation orders for over 9,200 homes. On December 22, 2010 a mud and debris flood hit several neighborhoods, the kind of event Policies 355 and 290 are written around. Seven Oaks Dam sits upstream, but we found no dam breach map for Highland and checked no FEMA flood zone. The San Andreas Fault has north and south branches inside the city, Alquist-Priolo zones cross the northeast, liquefaction risk covers much of the southeast and west, and Municipal Code 16.40.420 sets hillside rules for any lot averaging a 10 percent slope or more. South Coast AQMD is the air district, and its Rules 403, 1113 and 1403 touch dust, coatings and asbestos. For weather, the closest NOAA normals come from Redlands: 12.87 inches of rain a year and roughly 104 days at or above 90 F. Of the neighbors, San Bernardino and Redlands have a guide of their own, while Loma Linda, Yucaipa and Colton stay plain text. MDG Builders, CSLB #1040337, is a licensed general contractor: it writes your scope, applies for permits, schedules licensed subcontractors for the field work and checks the finished job with you. Before a Highland contract goes out for signature, it is worth knowing how general contractors use subcontractors and how to check a contractor's license.