General Contractor in Redlands, CA

What should a general contractor know about Redlands, where a historic district, a wildfire code and a flood rule can all land on one lot?

The City dates its founding to 1881 and its incorporation to 1888, and by 1900 Redlands had earned the label City of Millionaires, later softened to City of Beautiful Homes, on the back of navel oranges. The City's Housing Element counts 1,000 residents in 1888, 4,797 in 1900, 18,429 in 1950, 36,355 in 1970 and 73,168 in 2020, and it ties the growth after 1950 to subdivided citrus groves. Walk the old core and you pass Victorian and turn of the century landmarks, among them Kimberly Crest, the Morey House and the Smiley library, with bungalows near Smiley Park and big houses along Olive and Highland Avenues. Census Bureau ACS 2024 one year estimates, read through Census Reporter, count 27,483 housing units, give or take 2,237, and 44.0 percent of occupied homes are rented. About 56.8 percent of units are detached houses. The biggest decades are the 1970s with 4,980 units, the 1980s with 4,826 and the 1960s with 4,427, and about 8.1 percent date from 1939 or earlier. ACS puts the share built before 1980 at about 56.0 percent, while the Housing Element's older five year table says 65.8 percent, so we quote the range instead of one number. The era cells carry margins of 600 to 1,400 units, and because the table cannot split 1978 from 1979 we print no pre-1978 count. The median owner-occupied home is valued at $613,600. The Housing Element also says homes in South Redlands age better than their years suggest, because owners fix up historic houses, while most repair need, such as painting and reroofing, sits in North Redlands, which has many homes over 50 years old and no historic districts.

Redlands issues its own permits. Building & Safety is a division of Development Services, run from the One Stop Permit Center at 909-798-7536, and inspections are requested online. The City's two pages disagree on counter hours: one says Monday through Thursday with alternate Fridays closed, the other says Monday through Friday with every other Friday closed, so call before you drive over. Only solar, water heater, HVAC changeout, panel upgrade, patio cover, block wall and fence, and roofing permits can start in the online portal, and payment is still made in person. Everything else is filed at the counter. A permit may be pulled by the owner, by a licensed contractor with proof of workers' compensation insurance, or by an authorized agent holding a notarized letter. The City's code text was read in GoCodebook, a third-party mirror dated October 2026, so confirm section numbers with the City before you quote them. It lists the 2025 California Building, Residential and Fire Codes with local amendments, plus a 2025 Wildland-Urban Interface Code that covers every area of the city, although the kitchen and bathroom handouts still cite older code cycles. The fee schedule on the City's page carries columns labeled current, full cost and Year 1 to 3, and we could not tell which one is in force, so these pages quote no permit fees. New dwellings, additions and detached buildings need five 24 by 36 inch plan sets and two sets of Title 24 calculations. Work begun before the permit issues draws a separate investigation charge, and a building code violation is a misdemeanor that the code counts day by day. Dust, coatings and asbestos fall under South Coast AQMD Rules 403, 1113 and 1403, and water service comes from the City's own utility.

The eleven trades reach that counter differently. A roof repair or replacement is permit work that can start online, and in a historic district it is a minor review item. A window replacement is treated as permitted work, and a new opening you can see from the street is a major review item. A kitchen remodel or bathroom remodel reaches the counter as soon as cabinets, sinks, tubs or showers move or come out, but paint, floor coverings and a toilet swap alone stay outside it. A room addition must fit a lot that allows 30 percent coverage and a 25 foot rear yard. An ADU follows State ADU law, which the City says it applies, with detached units up to 1,200 square feet. House painting needs no building permit, yet a historic district asks you to call Planning before a color or siding change. Flooring installation needs no permit for the covering alone, though old tile and adhesive in an older house may bring asbestos survey duties. A fence up to 6 feet is exempt unless it encloses a pool, and the front yard has its own limits. Concrete work has no published exemption list, walls over 3 feet need a permit and anything touching the public right of way goes to Municipal Utilities & Engineering. A deck should be treated as permit work because the City publishes no low-deck exemption.

Then come the hills, the water and the fire. About 30 percent of Redlands sits in a high fire hazard severity zone, mostly the south and east, where the City's 2025 Community Wildfire Protection Plan names Smiley Heights, Live Oak Canyon, San Timoteo Canyon and the eastern edge near Mentone and Yucaipa. We could not load the State's map viewer, so we checked no parcel, and the Redlands Fire Department can tell you your lot's zone. Redlands runs its own Fire Department, not San Bernardino County Fire, and its Community Risk Reduction Division reviews fire plans, issues fire permits and inspects defensible space. The local WUI chapter calls for a 100 foot fuel modification zone around buildings in hazardous fire areas, Class A roofs in Moderate, High and Very High zones, and a penalty of $1,000 a day. On top of that sits design review: eight local historic districts, most of them in South Redlands, plus two National Register districts require a Certificate of Appropriateness for exterior work, and any demolition of a structure 50 years or older goes to the Historic and Scenic Preservation Commission. Interior work stays outside that review. In flood zones AE and AH the lowest floor must sit 2 feet above base flood elevation, and the 1819 Mission Zanja is called a serious threat in big storms. The Hillside Development District starts at an average slope of 15 percent. Voter-approved growth caps in Title 19 are suspended while SB 330 applies. Neighbors with their own guide: San Bernardino. Loma Linda, Highland, Yucaipa and Colton stay plain text for now. MDG Builders, CSLB #1040337, plans the scope and files the permits, and the field work goes to licensed subcontractors who will hand over their license numbers on request. Two short reads help before any signature: the blog post on how general contractors use subcontractors and the one on checking a contractor's license.