If the chief engineer finds that the work as proposed by the applicant is likely to endanger any property or public way or structure or endanger the public health or welfare through environmental damage, the chief engineer shall deny the grading, grubbing, or stockpiling permit. Factors to be considered in determining probability of hazardous conditions shall include but not be limited to possible saturation of the ground by rains, earth movements, dangerous geological conditions or flood hazards, undesirable surface water run-off, subsurface conditions such as the stratification and faulting of rock, nature and type of soil or rock. Failure of the chief engineer to observe or recognize hazardous conditions or the chief engineer’s failure to deny the grading, grubbing, or stockpiling permit shall not relieve the permittee or the permittee’s agent from being responsible, nor cause the city, its officers or agents, to be held responsible for the conditions or damages resulting therefrom.
(Sec. 23-2.6, R.O. 1978 (1983 Ed.)) (1990 Code, Ch. 14, Art. 14, § 14-14.6)