Solar panels in Lake Balboa

The Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council's map covers the grid from Roscoe Boulevard south to Victory Boulevard, between White Oak Avenue (Louise Avenue north of Saticoy Street) and the 405, plus Sepulveda Basin land below Victory. The City's 2015 historic survey draws the neighborhood tighter, stopping just west of the airport. Balboa Boulevard, running north to south through it, splits the housing in two.

Between White Oak and Balboa, four census tracts hold about 4,900 homes. Nearly nine in ten are detached houses, about half went up in the 1950s alone, and roughly three in four occupied homes are lived in by their owners. From Balboa east to the freeway, seven tracts hold about 10,800 homes, and close to six in ten of those are in structures of five or more units.

Source: 2020–2024 American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau), five-year figures, 11 residential tracts inside the council boundary.

West of Balboa, the question is what a 1950s roof can carry without extra paperwork. LADBS waives the separate structural permit for a flush-mounted array on a house only when every item on its checklist holds, including one layer of roofing, no sagging, panels and racking at 4 pounds per square foot or less, no panel hanging past a ridge, hip, gable end or eave, and an array on half the total roof area or less. Miss one and the structure goes to plan check; the electrical permit is required either way.

That same survey records that the 1994 Northridge earthquake toppled chimneys across Reseda and west Van Nuys, so rebuilt chimneys are common here. A chimney shades and breaks up the roof, and its flashing is far easier to repair before panels surround it.

Check the main electrical panel next. If it is the 1950s original and too small, replacing it can ride along in the same project as an electrical panel upgrade. East of Balboa, houses get the same checks, but multi-unit buildings beyond a duplex do not qualify for the City's express solar permit, and a building with several meters falls outside LADWP's simplest connection type.

The Van Nuys Airport weather station stands inside the council boundary, and NOAA's 1991–2020 normals there average a 93°F high in August and 67°F in December. Air conditioning swells the bill in the months the roof produces most, so size the system from a full year of bills, with a production estimate that allows for heat losses.

LADWP is a City department that credits your roof's exports under a net metering rider of its own, outside the CPUC's NEM 3.0 tariff, which covers Edison customers who applied to connect solar on or after April 15, 2023. Its guidelines also bar anyone else from selling you electricity, so the paths here are buying the system or leasing one on LADWP's terms, both covered in our LADWP solar net metering guide. Paying cash or with a loan? Keep the federal home solar credit out of the numbers, since it ended on December 31, 2025; our 2026 solar tax credit guide has the details.

LADBS issues the permit; its nearest counter, at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard, sees visitors by appointment. A rooftop array on a house or duplex, no bigger than 10 kW and on a service panel rated 225 amps or less, can get an express permit with no plan check when its inverters and wiring stay inside a few more limits. LADWP's interconnection is a separate application.

Our part is the design, the LADBS permit set and the LADWP application; the solar installation page lays out each step, and our solar repair service covers systems other companies installed. Next door, read about solar in Van Nuys across the 405, solar in Reseda across White Oak, solar in Northridge across Louise and the western stretch of Roscoe, and solar in North Hills across Roscoe from the airport, or browse all our service areas.