Home remodeling Novato

Opening up a Novato kitchen, and what the city reviews first

Novato's kitchen remodel handout draws its line at the sheetrock. Replace appliances in place and the existing floor plan is enough, with the work checked in the field; reconfigure the layout and the city wants existing and proposed plans at 11 by 17 and a written scope. Take out a wall and the plan goes to a full in-house review. Anything that reaches a second floor starts at the Planning Division instead.

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  • Rules on this page checked against 16 public sources, October 2026

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Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

Before you hire

Five things worth settling at the kitchen table

  1. Ask whether the plan keeps the sheetrock in place, because Novato ties the circuit, receptacle and lighting upgrades to opening the walls.
  2. Ask who takes the drawings to the Planning Division first, and whether the design is minor enough to ride along with the building permit.
  3. If the lot slopes, ask who draws the story pole plan, who installs the poles and who pays the surveyor for the certification.
  4. Ask whether the parcel is in the Special Flood Hazard Area, and whether the combined scope could cross the city's half-of-value line.
  5. For a wall removal, check at cslb.ca.gov that the class is B rather than B-2, and that the business on the license signs the contract.
Title 24 climate zone
Zone 2, per the city's own Building Design Criteria
Codes in force
2025 California codes, as amended by Ordinance No. 1729
Story poles
Required from 10 percent average slope, or on mapped ridgelines
Flood hazard area
Over 5,000 acres, with a 50 percent substantial-improvement test
Amphitheater Park on the former Hamilton Field in Novato
Amphitheater Park on the former Hamilton Field in Novato. Photo: Terrygraham415, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Post-1950 kitchens, and the wall that decides the wiring

Almost all of Novato's housing arrived after 1950, so most kitchens here sit in a stud-framed tract house rather than a Victorian or an Eichler, with drywall or painted plaster on the walls and a hood ducted through a soffit. The city's kitchen handout turns that into a practical test. Leave the wall covering on and the old countertop wiring, the receptacle spacing and the lighting wattage may stay as they are. Strip the sheetrock and the 2025 electrical and energy rules apply to the room: two 20-amp small-appliance circuits that may serve only the counters, the wall outlets and the refrigerator, GFCI and AFCI protection, separate dedicated circuits for the dishwasher, disposal, built-in microwave and trash compactor, and high-efficacy luminaires throughout. Paint in anything built before 1978 is the other reason to know which walls are coming open.

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

The work

From a like-for-like swap to a new floor above the sink

  1. Swapping appliances where they already stand

    The city's guide treats a like-for-like replacement as the simplest case. If the appliances come out and go back without the layout changing, the existing floor plan is the only drawing asked for, and the items on the checklist are verified in the field at inspection instead. The checklist still applies: the dishwasher needs an air gap above the sink flood rim, the disposal and dishwasher are cord-and-plug connected to receptacles that stay reachable rather than hiding behind the appliance, and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms go in before the frame inspection. New cabinets, counters and tile on their own are finish work the permit guide lists as exempt.

  2. Moving the sink, the range or a run of cabinets

    Once the layout is reconfigured, the submittal changes shape: existing and proposed kitchen floor plans drawn at 11 by 17 inches or larger, plus a written description of the scope. Novato then holds the permit to what was filed. The approved drawings and the checklist items define the job, and altering the scope after issuance means asking for a revision rather than telling the inspector on the day. Relocating the hood brings the duct rule with it, since environmental air ducts must terminate at least three feet from a property line and from any door, window, opening skylight or attic vent.

  3. Widening the opening to the dining room

    Enlarging a wall opening is where the handout stops being a checklist. Novato says a scope that touches the structural system, removing walls to make a larger opening, triggers a complete in-house plan review, so the drawings leave the counter and go to a plans examiner. That also decides who can hold the contract: CSLB's B-2 Residential Remodeling class cannot take structural changes to load-bearing parts of a house, which leaves a licensed contractor (B General Building), or a B-2 subcontracting that part. Look the number up at cslb.ca.gov before signing.

  4. A kitchen that comes with a floor above it

    A remodel that adds a story is a Planning project before it is a building permit. Novato's answer to homeowners is explicit: any addition or remodel needs Planning Division approval first, a minor first-floor job with no real visual impact can ride along with the building permit, and a second-story addition goes to Design Review, at staff level or before the Design Review Commission. The Second Floor Residential Design Review criteria then shape the drawing, down to keeping the new volume off the edges of the house, putting it over the house rather than only over the garage, and bringing part of the upper roof down to the first-floor eave where the street has no pattern of tall two-story walls.

  5. Turning the garage into the new kitchen end

    Pushing a kitchen into the garage runs into Novato's parking arithmetic. A single-family house owes two parking spaces, one of them in a garage, and the city measures the interior at 20 by 20 feet for a two-car garage or 10 by 20 for a single. If only a one-car garage is left, an additional independently accessible paved space of 9 by 19 feet has to sit outside the required front-yard setback. Work it out before the cabinets are ordered, because the answer can move the wall line.

Permits and local rules

Who signs off, and under which Novato rule

  • The kitchen remodel guide, and the sheetrock line

    Novato's Building Division publishes a kitchen remodel guide for single-family houses, last revised in June 2026. It sets the two submittal paths, in-kind replacement against reconfigured layout, and lists the code items an inspector checks. Three of those items carry the same note: the small-appliance branch circuits, the countertop receptacle spacing and the high-efficacy lighting are not required to be upgraded if the sheetrock is not removed. The guide also pulls in work outside the kitchen, listing water-conserving plumbing fixtures throughout the building under SB 407 and CalGreen Section 4.303, and a spark arrestor on any chimney serving a solid-fuel appliance.

    Source: City of Novato Building Division (novato.gov)

  • Second Floor Residential Design Review

    Design Review is required for new two-story houses and for any single-family lift-and-fill construction or addition that results in two stories in residential districts, under Section 19.42.030b of the Zoning Ordinance; the Director may exempt a proposal judged visually or functionally insignificant. One criterion catches people out. New construction should not significantly shade a neighbor's existing solar collector, defined here as a device of 24 square feet or more, or the primary active recreational areas of their rear and side yards, and a design that cannot meet it has to show the effort made. Lots averaging more than ten percent slope also fall under the hillside and ridgeline chapter.

    Source: City of Novato Planning Division (novato.gov)

  • Story poles before the hearing

    Under Municipal Code Section 19.26.030.G, story poles go up for every project on a parcel whose average slope reaches ten percent, and for sites shown on General Plan Figure ES-6 as ridgelines and scenic resources; Planned District parcels may also draw the requirement. The poles are 2-by-4 lumber, plastic pipe or metal rod, with the top two feet painted red or orange and bright netting, flags or tape tracing the roof outline and ridgeline. Police caution tape is not accepted. A surveyor or engineer certifies the heights, the poles stand at least ten days before the action date, and they stay up until the appeal period closes. The applicant pays for putting them up and taking them down.

    Source: City of Novato Planning Division (novato.gov)

  • Remodeling inside the Special Flood Hazard Area

    More than 5,000 acres of Novato sit in FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area, and the city's floodplain page explains what that does to a remodel. Inside the area, work has to put the lowest level above the base flood elevation and anchor the structure against lateral movement, and those rules reach any substantial improvement, which the city defines as an improvement or repair worth half of the original building's value. Repairs to a substantially damaged building are treated the same way. The regulations sit in Municipal Code Chapter 5-31, and Public Works at 922 Machin Avenue answers whether a parcel is in the mapped area and holds its elevation certificate.

    Source: City of Novato (novato.gov)

State license for this work: B General Building, B-2 Residential Remodeling. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

Part by part

Not every Novato address gets the same answer

  • Old Town and the creek confluence

    The city's own account of flooding puts the worst of it upstream of where Novato, Warner and Arroyo Avichi Creeks meet, and the photograph it publishes of the 1982 storms is of downtown under water. On these blocks the substantial-improvement test is not academic: a kitchen opened up as part of a larger job can push the total past half the building's value and bring the elevation and anchoring rules with it.

  • Hamilton Field

    The National Park Service describes the old airfield's buildings as hollow tile or reinforced concrete behind stucco, with Mission tile roofs, inside a National Register historic district. A kitchen wall there is not a stud bay, so a wider opening, a relocated hood duct or a new circuit is masonry work with a different drawing behind it. Ask the Planning Division which design guidelines cover the site before the design is settled.

  • Bel Marin Keys

    The community services district describes Bel Marin Keys as a waterfront development in unincorporated northeastern Marin County, about four miles east of the city, with 702 single-family houses. Novato mailing addresses there do not bring Novato jurisdiction: the permit, the plan check and the inspections belong to the county, so none of the city's design review or story pole rules apply to a remodel.

Timing

The review calendar runs before the saw does

Novato's planning handouts set out the steps rather than a date. Staff review an application for completeness within 30 days of submittal and refer it to outside agencies, including Novato Fire and North Marin Water, before it can move forward. Once the file is complete an action date is set, and notice goes to surrounding owners 10 days ahead, within a 600-foot radius for a full Design Review. Anyone noticed can ask for a Design Review Commission hearing, which means re-noticing, and the decision is final only after a 10-day appeal window. On a sloped lot the story poles have to stay standing through all of it.

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

Questions

What people ask before they open a Novato kitchen wall

We are only replacing the cabinets and counters. Does Novato want a permit for that?

On their own, no. The city's permit guide repeats the state exemption for painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, countertops and similar finish work. The exemption ends where the systems begin: the same guide lists kitchen remodels, cooktops, ovens and ranges, dishwashers and garbage disposals, lighting and gas piping as permit work. So a cabinet-and-counter refresh that also swaps the dishwasher or moves a light needs the permit for those parts.

Does a kitchen remodel in Novato mean rewiring the whole room?

It depends on the walls. Novato's kitchen guide attaches the same note to three of its electrical items: the two 20-amp small-appliance circuits, the countertop receptacle spacing that keeps every point within 24 inches of an outlet, and the high-efficacy lighting are not required to be upgraded if the sheetrock is not removed. Take the wall covering off and those requirements land, along with GFCI and AFCI protection on the kitchen circuits.

Our plan adds a bedroom level over the new kitchen. What does the city look at?

Design Review. In Novato's residential districts, a new two-story house, a lift-and-fill, or an addition that leaves the house with two floors goes through it under the Zoning Ordinance, either at staff level or before the Design Review Commission. The guidelines ask for roof pitches and materials that match what is there, the upper volume set back from the house lines and placed over the house rather than only over the garage, and no significant new shading of a neighbor's solar collector or usable back yard.

Why would a kitchen job need story poles?

Because of the ground, not the cabinets. Novato requires story poles on every project on a parcel with an average slope of ten percent or more, and on sites mapped as ridgelines and scenic resources in the General Plan. If the kitchen work is part of an addition on such a lot, 2-by-4 poles with red or orange tips and netting along the roof line have to stand ten days before the action date, certified by a surveyor or engineer, and stay up until the appeal period ends.

The kitchen was redone before we bought the house, with no permit. Where does that leave us?

In the same position as the person who did it. Novato's Building Division policy, effective October 2024, states there is no statute of limitations on unpermitted construction and no grandfather clause for work done under a prior owner. Two routes are offered: pull a demolition permit and return the house to its last permitted condition, or apply for permits and show the existing work complies. The policy adds that a buyer, realtor or lender may require it be permitted, corrected and inspected before closing.

Will the kitchen permit reach fixtures in the rest of the house?

Novato's kitchen guide puts water-conserving plumbing fixtures throughout the building on its additional-requirements list, citing SB 407 and CalGreen Section 4.303, and names toilets, urinals, showerheads, lavatory and kitchen faucets. So the inspection can reach a bathroom you were not planning to touch. Worth checking the whole house against the current flow limits before the permit is signed off, rather than on the day the inspector arrives.

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

  • novato.gov: 639168748143570000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639166071631400000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639227258571000000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639207669423830000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639038284726570000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639038269170100000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639083224784530000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: 639083224199270000 (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: forms guides consumer alerts policies (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: frequently asked questions (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: flood information (novato.gov)
  • novato.gov: floodplain understanding and regulations (novato.gov)

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