Sub-dividing a residential parcel in San Fernando Valley

[Trevor Baker]

We are investigating a parcel of land in the San Fernando Valley within the city of Los Angeles.  It's .49 acres and is a long narrow strip of land surrounded by tract homes.  It appears this is a situation where the owner refused to sell to developers no matter what he was offered.  It's our understanding that he has now passed and his children are possibly open to the idea of selling.  Nothing definite yet, but we're looking at different strategies.  

There is an old house there now, but we feel there's better potential if we sub-divide it into 3 parcels and build 3 new homes on it.  The houses on either side are laid out this way.  It's obvious that the city had planned and may still want to complete the street at the 2/3's location of this parcel as it dead-ends on either side of it.  This would provide a logical layout that matches the rest of the neighborhood.  

In very rough figures, we think we might be able to buy the land for $500K-$520K, and brand new two-story houses should sell for about $750K each.

So, what we want to know is... how difficult is it to sub-divide a parcel of land like this in the city of L.A.?  Would we/ could we sell the section of it to the city so they can complete the street?  What should we figure for rough costs to do a project like this?