County Set to Get Tough on Improper Site Grading

Bob and Ann Collar’s home sits at the base of Silverado Canyon on 3 1/2 acres, including a large field that the couple hoped someday to use for more homes.

But their building hopes were dashed a decade ago when, they said, a neighbor up the hill graded his property without a permit. The work diverted the natural water flow, leaving a third of the Collars’ property submerged during heavy rains.

Now Orange County supervisors are prepared to enact tough new sanctions on rogue grading projects. On Tuesday, the supervisors are expected to increase fines from $100 a day--a difficult sanction for the county to enforce daily--to flat fines ranging from $250 to a whopping $25,000.

“This bolsters our ability to penalize those who do work without permits or build something that is not consistent with existing codes,” said Thomas Mathews, director of the county’s Planning Department.

“We are allowed to issue citations now, but the existing system has a lot of loopholes, which makes enforcement very difficult,” he said.

Private property owners typically are the ones who fail to get permits either because they don’t know they need them or because they want to avoid the high costs of permits and soil and engineering reports, said Patrick Stanton, manager of the Planning Department’s subdivisions and grading unit.

Developers usually have a better understanding of permit requirements and also can pass costs on to purchasers.

“Most of the serious, illegal grading taking place is in the foothills,” Mathews said. “They have very steep slopes and a very fragile vegetation. When that vegetation is removed, then the erosion of the slopes is accelerated.”

Improper grading can make the land susceptible to mudslides, landslides or flooding.

Residents in unincorporated areas need permits to move large amounts of dirt for building access roads, barns and other projects. To get permits, they must have soil and engineering plans showing what they want to do and what effect the grading will have.

Mathews said his agency doesn’t have the personnel to cite building code violators every day, which would be required under the current system of daily fines.

The county plans to hire seven new code inspectors, and the Planning Department will ask for $500,000 to $1 million to cover the additional salaries and costs, Mathews said. But a large chunk of that money, he said, would be recouped with the stricter enforcement program.

The amount of the fine would be based on such factors as the amount of illegal work, any damage it caused and any attempts to remedy the damage.

Stanton’s division issues the permits, which require reports from a soils engineer and a civil engineer.

“If they come in and get the proper permits, they must demonstrate how they’re going to grade” the land properly, Mathews said.

A properly graded slope, for instance, would maintain a stable ground and distribute water runoff in ways that don’t harm properties below.

Permits cost $68.80 an hour for a planning check and $80 an hour for a field inspection. Costs can vary from about $2,000 for a single family lot to $100,000 for a large housing development, depending on the size and complexity of the project, Stanton said.

About 250 to 300 permits are issued every year. Fees cover nearly all of the $1.3-million operating budget for Stanton’s division.

Stanton said his office receives a few calls a month reporting illegal grading. An inspector will generally first try to get the landowner to stop work and get a permit, which many people don’t realize is required.

Grading without a permit is a misdemeanor, but the county district attorney’s office rarely files charges because a lack of staffing makes more serious crimes a priority, Stanton said.

In the last year, five people were sued. Settlements usually only involve fixing the problem, although one person was fined $2,000.

Once the new fines and inspectors are in place, Stanton said he expects that a few large fines will be levied at first to show the seriousness of the offense.

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Illegal Grading

Owners sometimes improperly grade their land in unincorporated areas, creating possible slide or flood problems. Supervisors are expected Tuesday to adopt stiff fines--up $250,000--for lack of a grading permit and other violations.

Biggest grading problems

1. Fill area isn’t benched, causing mudslides/landslides

2. Dirt isn’t compacted enough, and is too weak to build on causing slides on a slope

3. Fill area extends into water courses, causing water blockage/flooding. It also carries dirt into the oceans and rivers, choking up the system.

Proper Grading

1. Remove unsuitable slope material

2. Bench, or stair-step, remaining slope

3. Add new fill

4. Compact fill

5. Continue up slope

New slope cannot be steeper than 2 ft. horizontal to 1 ft. vertical ratio

Source: County of Orange