View from my home desk yesterday
Surprise, surprise, the city of Asheville changed their permitting policies, but failed to tell my builder of the changes when he applied for a permit. So when the city’s engineer showed up this morning, the work on my home was forced to a screeching halt.
Because of the steep slope ordinances, which I support fully, now ANY grading, even that on a flat surface that covers only about 30 x 20 feet (my side yard), must be pre-permitted and approved by city engineers before work can start. This was not the case a month ago, but when my guys applied for a permit, they were not told the policy had changed. Oh yeah, and now my builder will be penalized because no one told him the law changed.
So now my guys have to wait for approval, which could take a couple more days, though the permit’s been with the city for over a week. In the mean time, I have a huge muddy hole in my side yard and a huge pile of dirt in the front. We were moving the dirt to a neighbor’s yard, who wants fill dirt, but it turns out we can’t do that without a permit either. Yes, we can dump the dirt into the landfill without a permit, but we can’t move it across the street without one.
Bad hole! With old oil tank dug out of ground in back.
I think I need a nap.
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this is awful.
i know from experience that the time in betweeh the start and finish of a home improvement can seem like a lifetime.
it sucks getting held up this early in the game.
i truly feel for you.
that’s better than the shallow grave I have going in my backyard. see catnap40.blogspot.com
Lordy girl.
This is why I bless my lovely little street, with my lovely big old house, in which I only rent two rooms.
*sigh*
Good luck and may the permit gods be with you.
You are taking this rather calmly, for which I congratulate you. I would be hoppin’ stompin’ mad!
Why do you fully support steep slope ordinances? What exactly does that mean to you? Did someone close to you die in a landslide or a friend in California lose their house?
Just curious, the way it was written sounded like one of those ‘things’, whatever those ‘things’ are.
I personally would not “fully support” a steep slope ordinance if it pertained to the level 20 x 30′ area next to my house.
Full disclosure: I am starting to make money off this ordinance. I am delighted that people like you fully support it, but I’m not sure why you do. It does not stop projects from happening but it does complicate them and make them more expensive. I have to say that I personally fully support the steep slope ordinance.
That’s geotechnical engineer not enginner. I guess my math trumps my literacy.
Hi GTE,
No dramatic reason for supporting steep slope ordinance except that I think run-off is silting up our rivers and streams. When I was a kid, I remember being able to see the rocks in the bottom of some rivers round here. No longer.
Why do you support it? Other than it brings you cash?
I have to confess to being personally offended by houses on the sides of mountains. Especially big ones that require a great deal of clearing and excavation to construct.
While I understand the desire for the view, close study over the past 15 years (and lifelong in other parts of WNC)has shown me that I rarely see people on the mountainsides on their decks actually enjoying that view. Not as much as I see people in the neighborhoods enjoying their outdoors - with no view.
The law has strictly covered siltation adequately, people just simply broke that law, like any other. The new ordinance requires engineering input in certain situations but the public probably doesn’t know that that was required at the permitting/inspection level anyway. There were already specific limitations in the building code that triggered the input. I participated in developing the ordinance but it was obvious to anyone in the industry that those rules were already in place, just not in such a visible and dramatic way.
Anyway, there’s a lot to that topic but you did specifically mention your solid support and I don’t really see that the ordinance should bother a homeowner with a reasonable project, in a reasonable place when our resources should be focused on far larger and potentially more devastating projects, and there are plenty of those…