La Mesa, CA Building Safety: Building Inspections (2026)

LMMC § 14.11.080 amends UAC § 305.5.1 by adding a survey-certification step to the inspection process. Before the first foundation inspection of any new building, and before the first foundation inspection of any addition to an existing building sited within three feet or less of a property line, the applicant must submit a written statement to the Chief Building Official, signed under penalty of perjury by a registered civil engineer licensed to practice land surveying or by a licensed land surveyor. The statement must confirm that the engineer or surveyor is familiar with the rough grade elevations and building location requirements shown on the approved plans, that the site including rough grade elevations and building foundation location has actually been surveyed, and that the foundation location and rough grade elevations substantially comply with the plans the City of La Mesa approved.

The Chief Building Official may grant a case-by-case exemption for accessory structures where sufficient physical evidence, such as survey monuments, already demonstrates the structure's location relative to the property lines shown on the approved plans. This inspection step sits inside the broader permit-expiration scheme at § 14.11.050, under which work is presumed to have commenced only once the permittee has obtained a required inspection approval from the building official within the first year of permit issuance, and is presumed stopped if no required inspection approval is obtained within any six-month period after work begins.