HD Landscape and Maintenance provides custom landscape design in Lake Oswego, OR — planting plans, hardscape layout, drainage, and lighting, drawn to work within the city’s tree code, lake setbacks, and sensitive lands overlays. We design and build across Clackamas County and the Portland metro. Oregon LCB #9977.
By Donavan Hesedahl, Owner/Operator · Last updated July 2026
Worth being precise about this, because in Oregon it’s a legal distinction rather than a marketing one.
Landscape architecture is a registered profession. Under ORS 671.310 to 671.459, only individuals registered with the Oregon State Landscape Architect Board may use the title “landscape architect” or represent in any manner that they are one. Registration requires an accredited degree, documented experience, and passage of the national examination. Landscape architects handle work at a scale and complexity where public health and safety are engaged — grading and drainage engineering, structural site work, public projects, and large commercial developments.
Landscape design and installation is what a licensed landscape contracting business does. Oregon’s Landscape Contractors Board authorises licensees to plan, install, maintain, and repair landscape work — planting design, hardscape layout, irrigation, drainage, lighting, and the construction that follows.
We are a landscape contracting business, not landscape architects. HD Landscape and Maintenance holds Oregon LCB license #9977. We design and build residential landscapes. We are not registered under OSLAB and we don’t offer landscape architecture services.
For the large majority of Lake Oswego residential projects, that’s the right fit — a design-build contractor who will also be the one installing the work, so the plan is drawn by someone accountable for building it. Where a project genuinely needs a registered landscape architect — significant structural site work, complex engineered grading, or a commercial development — we’ll say so and recommend you engage one. Some projects need both.
If you see a contractor in this market using “landscape architect” loosely, it’s worth checking their OSLAB registration. The board maintains a public register.
A design package from us covers:
More than anywhere else in the metro, a Lake Oswego design is constrained before the first line is drawn. Four regulatory conditions come up repeatedly, and a plan that ignores them gets redrawn at your expense.
The tree canopy is effectively fixed. Lake Oswego’s Tree Code (LOC Chapter 55) limits a Type I permit to two trees per calendar year on a single-family residential lot. Anything over 5 inches DBH not qualifying for a Type I, dead, hazard, emergency, or verification permit needs a Type II — staff review plus a public comment period. Heritage Trees carry their own article and mitigation requirements.
The design consequence: you plan around the trees. A design that assumes removal of three mature firs to open a sightline is a design that either fails at permit or takes months longer than budgeted. We inventory trees over 5 inches DBH at the site analysis stage, before layout, because the canopy determines where hardscape and lawn can go.
Waterfront properties carry a 25-foot Special Setback. Lake Oswego’s development code establishes a 25-foot Oswego Lake Special Setback (LOC 50.04.002), and the tree code applies tighter restrictions to trees within it. On lakefront lots in McVey–South Shore, North Shore–Country Club, and along the lake in Lakewood, that setback governs where structures, hardscape, and significant plantings can be placed. Shoreline work also involves additional review beyond the standard residential process.
If you’re designing a lakefront property, confirm the setback line and any recorded easements before you fall in love with a layout. This is the single most common reason waterfront designs get reworked here.
Sensitive Lands overlays apply to a lot of properties. Lake Oswego maintains Sensitive Lands designations (LOC 50.05.010) covering stream corridors, wetlands, and tree groves. Where an overlay applies, permitted activity is constrained and a design has to be drawn to it. Properties near Tryon Creek and the city’s wooded draws are frequently affected.
Excavation near protected trees is regulated separately. LOC 55.08 limits excavation around protected trees, with a specific carve-out for irrigation excavation requiring a plumbing permit under LOC Chapter 46. This is why trenching routes for irrigation and lighting get planned alongside the tree inventory rather than after the planting plan is approved.
Practical upshot: on a Lake Oswego project, the sequence is code check → tree inventory → layout, not layout → code check. Reversing that order is the most expensive mistake available.
Design itself is faster than most people expect. What extends the timeline is review and construction.
| Phase | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Site analysis and measurement | 1–2 weeks |
| Concept development and first presentation | 2–4 weeks |
| Revisions and final plan | 2–3 weeks |
| Permit review, if required | Varies — Type II tree permits include a public comment period |
| Installation | 2 weeks to several months, by scope and phasing |
Design to approved plan: roughly six to nine weeks for a typical residential project. Add permit review where the design touches protected trees, the lake setback, sensitive lands, or a retaining wall over four feet.
Design plus full installation: three to nine months on most Lake Oswego projects, driven mostly by scope, phasing, and season. Two scheduling realities worth planning around: hardscape and planting both go better outside deep winter on clay soils, and if a Type II tree permit is in the path, the comment period is not something anyone can accelerate.
The practical advice is to start design in autumn or winter for a spring or summer build. Designing in April for an installation “this summer” usually means an installation next summer.
Design is typically priced as a fee for the design work itself, separate from installation. The variables are property size, project complexity, number of use areas, how much grading and drainage work is involved, the level of drawing detail required, and whether permit-related documentation is needed.
On installation budgets, the honest guidance is that a full-property Lake Oswego project is a five-figure undertaking and often more once hardscape, drainage, and mature plant material are involved. Phasing exists precisely so that a good plan can be built over two or three seasons rather than compromised to fit one budget cycle.
etting aside percentage figures — which vary too much by property and market to state responsibly — the return in Lake Oswego specifically shows up in four places:
Avoided rework. The largest single financial risk on a Lake Oswego project is designing something the code won’t permit. A plan drawn against the tree code, lake setback, and sensitive lands overlays from the start costs less than a plan redrawn after a permit denial.
Protecting an irreplaceable asset. Because removal is permit-limited and mature trees take decades, the existing canopy on a Lake Oswego lot is effectively irreplaceable. A design that preserves and works with it protects real value; one that damages root zones during construction destroys it.
Drainage done once. On heavy clay, water is the thing that damages hardscape, kills plantings, and reaches foundations. Designing drainage before installation is dramatically cheaper than retrofitting it after a patio starts heaving.
Sequencing. A phasing plan prevents the classic pattern of installing a patio in year one and demolishing part of it in year three to run a drain line or a lighting circuit.
If low water use and habitat value are part of your goal, that’s covered in more depth on our sustainable landscaping in Lake Oswego page — native and drought-tolerant design overlaps heavily with good design generally.
We design and build throughout Lake Grove · Waluga · Westlake · Palisades · Mountain Park · Forest Highlands · First Addition · Old Town · Glenmorrie · Hallinan Heights · Oak Creek · Lakewood · McVey–South Shore · North Shore–Country Club · Uplands · Westridge · Evergreen · Rosewood · Birdshill.
Design constraints shift markedly across the city. McVey–South Shore, North Shore–Country Club, and lakefront Lakewood bring the 25-foot Special Setback and shoreline review into play. Glenmorrie, Forest Highlands, and Mountain Park are sloped and heavily canopied — terracing, erosion control, and dry-shade planting drive those designs, with the tree code constraining layout throughout. Palisades and Westlake sit flatter on heavy clay, where drainage design carries more weight than grading. First Addition and Old Town have smaller lots and older housing stock, and some properties fall under Historic Landmark designation, which adds review.
Outside city limits we serve West Linn, Oregon City, Tualatin, Wilsonville, and Clackamas, plus Aloha, Beaverton, Tigard, and Hillsboro on Portland’s Westside, where we’re based.
Lake Oswego pages: Yard care services · Sustainable landscaping · Specialty landscape services · Lawn care services. Related: Retaining wall installation in Portland, OR.
In Oregon it’s a legal distinction. Landscape architecture is a registered profession under ORS 671.310 to 671.459 — only individuals registered with the Oregon State Landscape Architect Board may use the title “landscape architect” or represent themselves as one, and registration requires an accredited degree, documented experience, and a national examination. Landscape design and installation is performed by licensed landscape contracting businesses, which Oregon’s Landscape Contractors Board authorises to plan, install, maintain, and repair landscape work. Landscape architects typically handle larger-scale and structurally complex work; design-build contractors handle most residential projects. HD Landscape and Maintenance is a landscape contracting business holding Oregon LCB #9977 and is not registered as a landscape architect.
Design is usually priced as a fee separate from installation, driven by property size, project complexity, number of use areas, how much grading and drainage is involved, drawing detail required, and whether permit documentation is needed. Focused single-area designs cost considerably less than full-property master plans. Ask whether design fees are credited toward installation, since practices differ between firms.
Design to approved plan is typically six to nine weeks for a residential project — one to two weeks for site analysis, two to four for concept development, and two to three for revisions. Permit review adds time where the design touches protected trees, the Oswego Lake setback, sensitive lands, or a retaining wall over four feet; a Type II tree permit in Lake Oswego includes a public comment period that can’t be accelerated. Design plus full installation typically runs three to nine months. Starting design in autumn or winter for a spring or summer build avoids the most common scheduling squeeze.
Generally, deliverables vary by firm and by project scope — some produce hand-drawn plans, some 2D CAD drawings, some 3D renderings or walkthroughs, and detail level usually scales with project size and fee. What matters more than rendering style is whether the plan is dimensioned accurately enough to build and price from, and whether it accounts for site constraints like tree protection zones and setbacks.
The clearest returns here are specific to local conditions rather than generic resale percentages. A design drawn against Lake Oswego’s tree code, the 25-foot Oswego Lake Special Setback, and sensitive lands overlays from the outset avoids the cost of redrawing after a permit denial. Preserving mature canopy protects an asset that is effectively irreplaceable, since removals are permit-limited and replacement takes decades. Designing drainage before installation on heavy clay costs far less than retrofitting after hardscape begins failing. And a phasing plan prevents installing work in year one that gets partly demolished in year three.
HD Landscape and Maintenance LLC 6581 SW 192nd Ave Aloha, OR 97007
Phone: (971) 336-5520
Email: hdlandscapellc@gmail.com
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. · Sunday, Closed
License: Oregon LCB #9977
Serving Lake Oswego and surrounding areas including Lake Grove, Palisades, Mountain Park, First Addition, Old Town, Glenmorrie, and the lakefront neighborhoods, plus West Linn, Oregon City, Tualatin, and the greater Portland metro area.