(A) No person, the owner of any property or in possession or control of any property, shall cause, permit or allow any excavation or filling to be done on such property unless a permit has been issued by the Building Commissioner for such excavating or filling except that no permit shall be required for:
(1) Normal cemetery operations of opening or closing graves;
(2) Public work performed by or under control of the Building Commissioner, except for excavating or filling performed outside the project work limits;
(3) Exploratory excavations under the direction of a registered professional engineer, soil engineer, engineering geologists, soil scientist, or architect where incidental to the practice of architecture and exploratory excavations by a contractor or builder provided they are not made in a slope steeper than one vertical to five horizontal and are promptly and properly filled;
(4) Temporary excavations for wells, tanks, vaults, tunnels, sign foundations, and trenches for sewers, water lines, gas lines, electric lines, and other underground utilities;
(5) Subject to the provisions of § 154.10, any excavation that does not exceed five feet in vertical depth at its deepest point or 100 cubic yards per each 5,000 square feet of site area, whichever is the more restrictive;
(6) Subject to the provisions of § 154.10, any fill that does not exceed five feet in vertical depth at its deepest point or 100 cubic yards per each 5,000 square feet of site area, whichever is the most restrictive, and is placed on natural terrain with a slope flatter than one vertical to five horizontal and does not result in a finished slope steeper than one vertical to three horizontal;
(7) Subject to the provisions of § 154.10, any excavation for a basement and footings of a building authorized by a valid building permit, provided the excavation does not exceed 12 feet in vertical depth at its deepest point or 350 cubic yards per each 5,000 square feet of site area, whichever is the more restrictive, and is made in existing terrain with a slope flatter than one vertical to ten horizontal and the subsequent filling with this excavated material on the same site, provided the fill does not exceed five feet in vertical depth at its deepest point or 350 cubic yards per each 5,000 square feet of site area, whichever is the more restrictive, and is placed on existing terrain with a slope flatter than one vertical to ten horizontal and does not result in a finished slope steeper than one vertical to three horizontal.
(B) Where a succession of small excavations or fills individually not requiring a permit constitutes a continuing operation on a property and the accumulation of such excavations or fills on that property will exceed five feet in depth or 100 cubic yards per each 5,000 square feet of site area, a permit shall be required.
(C) No excavating or filling pursuant to divisions (A)(1) through (A)(7) hereof shall cause any slope to become unstable, impose loads which may effect the safety of structures or slopes, interfere with adequate drainage for the site area and the drainage area of land tributary to the site, obstruct, damage, or adversely affect existing sewerage or drainage, public or private, cause a stagnant pond of water to form, or cause erosion or sedimentation.
(D) The exemptions contained in division (A) do not apply to any operations pursuant to § 154.09.
(Ord. 1471, passed 2-6-90) Penalty, see § 154.99