A. Authority: This chapter is enacted pursuant to title 10 of the Utah Code as amended. This chapter is further enacted as an element of the Salt Lake City master plan.
B. Applicability: The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all site development within Salt Lake City.
C. Purpose: This chapter is adopted: to promote public safety and the general public welfare; to protect property against loss from erosion, earth movement, earthquake hazard, and flooding; to maintain a superior community environment; to provide for the continued orderly growth of the city to ensure maximum preservation of the natural scenic character of major portions of the city by establishing minimum standards and requirements relating to land grading, excavations, and fills; and to establish procedures by which these standards and requirements may be enforced. It is intended that this chapter be administered with the foregoing purposes in mind and specifically to:
1. Ensure that the development of each site occurs in a manner harmonious with adjacent lands so as to minimize problems of drainage, erosion, earth movement, and similar hazards;
2. Ensure that public lands and places, watercourses, streets, and all other lands in the city are protected from erosion, earth movement, and drainage hazards;
3. Ensure that the planning, design, and construction of all development will be done in a manner which provides maximum safety and human enjoyment, and, except where specifically intended otherwise, makes it as unobtrusive in the natural terrain as possible;
4. Ensure, insofar as practicable, the retention of natural vegetation to aid in protection against erosion, earth movement, and other hazards and to aid in preservation of the natural scenic qualities of the city; and
5. Ensure, insofar as Salt Lake City is located in an active seismic zone, that appropriate earthquake hazard mitigation measures are incorporated into the planning and execution of site development.
D. Identification of Fault Hazards: Pending the completion by the Utah geological survey (UGS) of a fault hazard map for Salt Lake City, the planning director may rely upon the existing information available from UGS or other publicly or privately prepared geological reports to identify fault hazards. (Ord. 91-24, 2024: Ord. 7-14, 2014)
A. Definition Of Terms: For the purposes of this chapter, certain terms used herein are defined as set forth below:
AS GRADED: The surface conditions existent upon completion of grading.
BEDROCK: In place, solid, rock.
BENCH: A relatively level step excavated into earth material on which fill is to be placed.
BORROW: Earth material acquired from an off site location for use in grading a site.
BUILDING PERMIT: A permit issued by Salt Lake City for the construction, erection, or alteration of a structure or building.
CERTIFY OR CERTIFICATION : Means that the specific reports, inspections, and tests that are required have been performed by the person or under their supervision, and that the results of such reports, inspections, and tests comply with the applicable requirements of this chapter.
CITY ENGINEER: The city engineer of Salt Lake City.
CIVIL ENGINEER: A professional engineer registered in the state of Utah to practice in the field of civil works.
CIVIL ENGINEERING: The application of the knowledge to the forces of nature, principals of mechanics, and the properties of materials to the evaluation, design, and construction of civil works for the beneficial uses of mankind.
COMPACTION: The densification of fill by mechanical means.
CUBIC YARDS: The volume of material in an excavation and/or fill.
CUL-DE-SAC: A street closed at one end.
CUT: See definition of Excavation.
DRIVEWAY: A way or route for use by vehicle traffic leading from a parking area or from a house, garage, or other structure, to a road or street.
EARTH MATERIAL: Any rock, natural soil, or any combination thereof.
ENGINEERING GEOLOGIST: A graduate in geology or engineering geology of an accredited university, with 5 or more full years of professional postgraduate experience in the application of the geological sciences, of which 3 full years shall be in the field of engineering geology that has required the application of geological data, techniques, and principles to engineering problems dealing with groundwater, naturally occurring rock and soil, and geologic hazards for the purpose of assuring that geological factors are recognized and adequately interpreted and presented.
EROSION: The wearing away of the ground surface as a result of the movement of wind, water, and/or ice.
EXCAVATION: Any act by which vegetation, earth, sand, gravel, rock, or any other similar material is cut into, dug, quarried, uncovered, removed, displaced, relocated, or bulldozed, and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom.
EXISTING GRADE: The actual elevation (in relation to mean sea level) of the ground surface before excavation or filling.
FILL: Any earth, sand, gravel, rock, or any other material which is deposited, placed, replaced, pushed, dumped, pulled, transported, or moved by man to a new location and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom.
FILL MATERIAL: Earth material free from rock or similar irreducible material exceeding 12 inches in diameter, metal, and organic material except that topsoil spread on cut and fill surfaces may incorporate humus for desirable moisture retention properties.
GRADING: Excavation or fill or any combination thereof that alters the elevation of the terrain and shall include the conditions resulting from any excavation or fill.
LICENSED ARCHITECT: An architect who is registered with the division of occupational and professional licensing of the state of Utah.
NATURAL DRAINAGE: Water which flows by gravity in channels formed by the surface topography of the earth prior to changes made by the efforts of man.
ONE STREET ACCESS: A street that provides the sole access to one or more other streets.
PARCEL: All contiguous land in one ownership, provided, however, each lot conforming to the zoning ordinances of Salt Lake City in a subdivision may be considered to be a separate parcel.
PERCENT OF SLOPE: The slope of a designated area of land determined by dividing the horizontal run of the slope into the vertical rise of the same slope, measured between contour lines on the referenced contour map and converting the resulting figure into a percentage value. This calculation is described by the following formula:
S = V/H
Where
"S" is the percent of slope;
"V" is the vertical distance; and
"H" is the horizontal distance.
PERMITTEE: Any person to which a site development permit has been issued.
PLANNING DIRECTOR: The planning director of Salt Lake City.
QUARRY: An open excavation for the extraction of resources.
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER: A civil engineer who is registered with the division of occupational and professional licensing of the state of Utah.
REMOVAL: Killing vegetation by spraying, complete extraction, or excavation, or cutting vegetation to the ground, trunks, or stumps.
SEISMIC: Characteristic of, or produced by, earthquakes or earth vibration.
SITE: A lot or parcel of land, or a contiguous combination thereof, where grading work is performed as a single unified operation.
SITE DEVELOPMENT : Grading and underground utility installation in preparation for an approved, pending development or use for the subject site.
SLOPE CLASSIFICATION MAP: A map prepared as a colored exhibit by a registered professional engineer or land surveyor based upon a contour map of the specified scale and contour interval, upon which the measured and calculated percent of slope (measured between every contour interval on the map) is classified or grouped into percentage of slope data in 10% slope groupings as follows:
Slope Classification | Percent Of Slope | Mapped Color |
Level | 0 - 9.9% | Uncolored |
Slight | 10 - 19.9% | Yellow |
Moderate | 20 - 29.9% | Orange |
Severe | 30% and greater | Red |
SOILS ENGINEER: A registered civil engineer of the state of Utah, specializing in soil mechanics and foundation engineering, familiar with the application of principles of soil mechanics in the investigation and analysis of the engineering properties of earth materials.
SURCHARGE: The temporary placement of fill material on a site in order to compress or compact the natural soil mass.
TESTING LABORATORY: A testing laboratory that requires supervisory personnel to be professional engineers registered with the division of occupational and professional licensing of the state of Utah.
VACANT: Land on which there are no structures or only structures which are secondary to the use or maintenance of the land itself. (Ord. 91-24, 2024: Ord. 7-14, 2014)
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