When you need a grading permit

What usually triggers one

Every jurisdiction writes it differently, but the triggers are almost always some combination of these. If your project hits any of them, assume a permit until the agency says otherwise.

• Volume of earth moved, commonly 50 to 250 cubic yards of cut or fill
• Depth of cut or height of fill, commonly 2 to 3 feet
• Area disturbed, commonly half an acre, and one acre for the state storm water permit
• Work on a slope over a stated percentage
• Anything in a creek, a drainage course, a flood zone, or an easement
• Creating or altering a drainage pattern that reaches a neighbor

What a grading plan has to show

A grading permit application is a plan set, and the plan is what gets reviewed. On a small residential job it can be a single sheet; on a subdivision it is a package.

• Existing and proposed contours, with cut and fill quantities
• Cross sections through the cuts and fills
• Drainage: where water arrives, where it goes, and what it goes through
• Erosion control plan, with the practices called out by location
• A soils or geotechnical report, on most permitted work
• Haul route and truck counts, on larger projects

Storm water sits on top of it

A project that disturbs one acre or more, or is part of a larger common plan of development that does, needs coverage under the state Construction General Permit and a SWPPP written by a QSD. That is separate from, and additional to, the local grading permit and its erosion control requirement.

The wet season runs October 1 through April 30, and inside it a site has to be storm-ready at all times. That single fact drives more grading schedules in this valley than anything else.

The sequence, and how long it takes

Soils report and survey, then a plan by a civil engineer, then the application, then a review cycle or two, then the permit. Expect six to twelve weeks on a straightforward residential job and longer on anything that touches a creek or needs an agency permit alongside it.

Then: preconstruction meeting, erosion control installed first, grading with inspections at the stages the permit names, compaction testing by an independent lab, and a final that closes the permit. A permit left open is a problem when the property sells.

Where to actually ask

Inside a city, the city's public works or building department. Outside city limits in Butte County, the county's Development Services. Either will tell you over the phone whether your project trips a threshold, and that call is free.

We are happy to make it with you, or to look at the parcel and tell you what we think it needs before you pay an engineer to find out.

Questions we get