Solar panels in Pacoima

Pacoima is part of the City of Los Angeles, in its Arleta–Pacoima community plan area, and LADWP is the city's utility. San Fernando, a separate city, is on Edison's list of the incorporated cities it serves. For most of its length the city line between them does not run down a street, so your street name won't tell you which side you're on.

Mailing addresses blur it further. Hundreds of homes on Vaughn, Del Sur and Corcoran streets are addressed to San Fernando, CA 91340, yet the Census Bureau's geocoder and the county's tax records both place them in the City of Los Angeles. The utility maps split, too: Edison's own service-territory map follows the city line and leaves those blocks out, while the state energy commission's map, which calls its boundaries approximate, follows the ZIP code and shades most of the strip as Edison's. When the envelope and the maps disagree, the utility printed on your bill settles it.

The line also picks the permit office: LADBS, the city's building department, on the Los Angeles side, and San Fernando's Community Development Department on the other, where solar and battery permits are issued instantly online through Symbium. Homes inside that city are covered on our San Fernando solar page.

LADWP writes its own net metering rules rather than following the CPUC's NEM 3.0 decision for Edison customers; our guide to LADWP net metering explains them and the lease terms LADWP accepts.

Wildfire maps leave most of Pacoima alone. CAL FIRE's 2025 map for local areas rates about four-fifths of the neighborhood council's territory as non-wildland. Its High and Very High zones sit mostly over the Hansen Dam basin on the east side, and the City's own Very High map reaches into Pacoima only around that basin.

Double-check the north end near Foothill Boulevard, where the 2025 map draws a Moderate patch and a smaller High zone beside it. In High and Very High zones, LADBS applies California's 2025 wildland-urban interface code: replacing half or more of a roof within 12 months means a Class A covering, and wood shakes are ruled out. Where Class A roofing is required, the panels and racking need a Class A fire rating too.

LADBS issues Pacoima's permits. Its Valley counter, by appointment, is in the Braude Building at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard, though qualifying rooftop systems are permitted online. A battery adds a Los Angeles Fire Department plan check and permit. Grid connection is a separate LADWP application; on a solar installation, we prepare the permit set and the LADWP paperwork together.

Check two LADWP programs first. Solar Rooftops puts panels LADWP owns on an owner-occupied home and pays a fixed yearly amount for the use of the roof, while LADWP receives all the energy they generate. LADWP's income-qualified Self-Generation Incentive Program funds solar and batteries, with limited money and a long waitlist. Both program pages were still inviting applications in September 2026.

Planning to buy the system? The federal residential solar credit ended on December 31, 2025, as our 2026 solar tax credit guide explains. On LADWP the other route is a lease that meets the utility's terms; see our solar lease vs. buy comparison. Underperforming panels already on the roof? Our solar repair service works on them whichever company installed them.

Next door, see solar in Arleta to the southwest, solar in Sun Valley to the southeast, solar in Sylmar to the north, solar in Mission Hills to the west and solar in San Fernando across the city line, or browse our Southern California service areas page.