(A) Permit required. No person may commence or perform any grading or relocation of earth, and no person may import or export any earth materials to or from any grading site without first having obtained the appropriate development permit and/or final recorded tract map, and without first having received a grading permit from the City Engineer or Building Official, as required by provisions of this chapter.
(B) Grading on adjacent property. Upon approval by the City Engineer or Building Official, grading may be performed on property for which required permits or entitlements have not been granted, if such grading is necessary to development on adjacent property for which such permits or entitlements have been granted.
(C) Exceptions. The following activities are exempt from the requirement for a grading permit:
(1) An excavation which does not exceed 50 cubic yards or is less than two feet in depth, or which does not create a cut slope greater than five feet in height and steeper than 2:1, unless the cut slope is made in an area of adverse geological conditions.
(2) A fill less than one foot in depth and placed on natural terrain with a slope flatter than 5:1, or a fill less than three feet in depth not intended to support structures, provided such fill does not exceed 50 cubic yards on any one lot and does not obstruct a drainage course.
(3) Excavations below the finished grade for basements and footings of buildings, retaining walls, swimming pools, or other structures authorized by a valid building permit. This will not exempt any fill made with materials from such excavations or exempt any excavation having an unsupported height greater than five feet after the completion of such structures.
(4) Mining, quarrying, excavating, processing, and the stockpiling of rock sand, or gravel aggregate or clay, provided a valid surface mining permit has been issued by the city pursuant to Chapters 16.100 through 16.104 (Surface Mining and Reclamation) of this Title 16.
(5) The depositing of rubbish or other materials at any dump or sanitary landfill approved by and operating pursuant to the requirements, rules, and other applicable local, state, and federal regulations. Such exemption will not extend, however, to surrounding berms, permanent access roads to the site, permanent building sites, or protective drainage works.
(6) The construction of dams or reservoirs regulated or owned by the state and the federal governments.
(7) The temporary stockpiling of quarried or mined products or earth for future processing, disposal, or sale, but only insofar as such operations are conducted at a distance of more than 100 feet inside the outer property line of any parcel of land held in a single ownership, and further provided such stockpiling is authorized by applicable land use permits.
(8) Fanning and agricultural grading operations on parcels in a single ownership which are
larger than ten acres, and are zoned and used primarily for agricultural and/or soil and water conservation work under the direct control of the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service. Fanning and agricultural grading operations will not be interpreted to include:
(a) The construction of water- impounding structures of earth (which are not under the direct control of the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service), where the maximum depth to which water is or may be impounded is five feet or greater, or
(b) The excavation and/or filling of earth on which a structure requiring a building permit is to be supported.
(9) Grading operations conducted by the city for capital improvement projects approved by the Council.
(10) Exploratory borings and trenches made for soil engineering and engineering geological investigations.
(11) Routine excavations and fills for cemetery graves.
(12) Any grading operation conducted during a period of emergency or disaster and which is directly connected with or related to the relief of conditions caused by such emergency or disaster.
(Ord. 1103, passed 3-7-05)