24-Hour Emergency Plumbing in Westlake Village

Westlake Village: water, sewer and permits

Westlake Village became the 82nd city in Los Angeles County on December 11, 1981, and covers about 5.4 square miles. The land was once the Russell Ranch, dating from 1881. In 1963 the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company bought the 12,000-acre ranch, and in 1966 it started a master-planned community around a lake. The county line runs diagonally through that original plan, and only the Los Angeles County side became the city, which is why Westlake Lake, a 150-acre private lake, straddles the line. The Landing, the County Line Center and Westlake Golf Course are local landmarks. Agoura Hills borders the city on the east, unincorporated county land wraps the south and southeast sides, and the county line forms its west and northeast edges.

The US Census (ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates) puts about 3,100 housing units in Westlake Village. The median home dates from 1975, 61 percent were built before 1980, and 71 percent are detached single-family houses; roughly 60 percent went up during the 1960s and 1970s. The rest is a mix of condominiums, townhomes, lakefront homes and mobile homes. The city is divided into twenty master-planned neighborhoods, and all but one of them have CC&Rs, so a leak inside a shared wall or a common line can involve the homeowners association as well as the owner. A written estimate gives the board something concrete to look at.

Many of these houses are now around fifty years old or more, and that age tends to show in the same few places. The water heater has likely been replaced at least once already, and the next one must be strapped at two points against earthquakes, with a discharge pipe from its relief valve that ends somewhere harmless. Original copper supply lines can pinhole, older drain lines crack or let roots in, and pressure regulators and shutoff valves wear out. Hard water adds to it: in 2025 LVMWD water averaged 142 mg/L of hardness, about 8.3 grains per gallon, ranging from 119 to 176 mg/L, which is enough to leave scale in tank and tankless heaters, faucet cartridges and showerheads.

Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) owns the water system, and both its only reservoir, Las Virgenes Reservoir, and its Westlake Filtration Plant, which can treat 15 million gallons a day, are inside the city. The supply is imported State Water Project water disinfected with chloramines. LVMWD's part ends at the meter; the line from the meter to the house is the owner's. Every developed property is on sewer: LVMWD owns the trunk lines, the City owns the neighborhood mains, the County Sewer Maintenance District maintains them, and the lateral all the way to the City sewer belongs to the owner. Wastewater goes to the Tapia plant, and SoCalGas supplies the gas. Permits are where Westlake Village differs from Agoura Hills and Calabasas: the City contracts with Los Angeles County Public Works, so a plumbing permit is a County permit, filed through EPIC-LA (used for the city since April 1, 2024) or in person at the County's district counter at 26600 Agoura Road in Calabasas, under the 2025 California Plumbing Code as the County adopted it.

Westlake Village borders Agoura Hills. We take calls from each of them on the same 24-hour line. The plumber follows a leak or a blockage back to its source before cutting into any wall or floor, and nothing proceeds until you have signed a written estimate.