Self Storage/Subdivision- Dirt Permits

[Henry Clark]

No game tonight (Baseball College World Series), thought would knock some posts out.  My team LSU meets Florida for best of 3 Saturday/Sunday/Monday if needed.  If you're not cheering for LSU, don't read this post.

Have 4 different properties and dirt projects in play.  It's amazing how much you have to do on DIRT.

Self Storage two sites- These are both in a city.  One is a five-acre site. Want to fill about 150 truck loads (12 ton per load).  There is a low spot in the middle of the five acres. Even though we don't plan to develop yet, want to do while the area is dry, not in a rush competing with Mother nature and can get free or cheap dirt from some construction sites who are moving compaction dirt off other sites nearby.  Freight is the big cost of Dirt, so closer is better.  Also prefer not to do while wet so the city doesn't get on to you for tracking mud into the streets.    Other site is an 8 acre site, but just need about 20 loads to fill a low spot.  This site has been pre-approved and zoned for some buildings, although we aren't ready to pull the trigger.

Both sites got rejected. Site one both the City Engineer and the Planning department wants to know what we plan to build.  This is not zoned for Self Storage, plus the front road access is too valuable for Self-Storage, thus we will subdivide.  So, they want me to make up some drawings showing the subdivision.  Which I explained to them, we really don't know what we plan to do with the property.  1.  Bought as an investment., 2.  Would like to seek Conditional Use permit for the back side for Self-storage., 3.  Front side 17,000 VPD at 25 MPH, with two way turn in, will do some sort of Offices or something.  Don't want to sell the ground, to good of a location.   There are two job sites about 2 miles away with compaction dirt, plus the soil is dry.  Want to do this now.  So, our engineering firm is drawing up.

They mentioned another person did not get a permit and will probably have to move 2,000 truckloads of dirt they just moved onto their site.

Subdivision-  75 acres, 2 to 8 acre lots.  About 22 lots.

County Engineer-  Concerns- Burrow pits, Road/land erosion plans.  Lessons learned- A.  I misread the county policies.  Says 1 acre or less of disturbance no need for permit.  Our Burrow area was less than 1 acre, but I should have counted the roads we built also.  Puts us up to about 6 acres.  Engineer shut us down, till I got drawings put together., B.  Get a written list of concerns.  Went back and forth about 3 times, until we made a list.  

Regional State DNR-  Concerns- Ponds, Water containment areas.  Just wanted to make sure we filed for an NPDES #2 permit and maintained a SWPP plan.  Probably different names for each state.  Sent them copies and they were good.

State DNR Engineers-  Concerns- Erosion plans and SWPP documentation, NPDES #2 approval.  Wanted more detailed drawings and elevation plans.

Corp of Engineers-  Concerns- Aquatic plants, Brown Bats, Stream impact, Pond impact, Indian locations.  Lessons Learned-  We planned to build 3 ponds and clean out an old silt pond which was filled.  Had to do Soil type inventory, plant inventory, Aquatic plant inventory, did not have to count bats, since this was a bad place for bats.  All of the ponds are below the minimum Federal regulatory size for permitting, but they wanted to look at the project in total.  Went round and round.  Finally decided not to do one pond, it was going to be to shallow.  The other two ponds, I had to do a Stream Mitigation Credit study/analysis.  Fairly detailed and very easy to misread.  Ended up with 1,580 Stream mitigation credits needed for a one acre pond.  You have to buy the credits from someone who did Stream stabilization work.  He gave me a list to call.  $50 and $80 per credit from the two.  Basically we would have to purchase $80,000 to $120,000 of  Stream Mitigation Credits for the "Right" to build the pond.  Said forget that.  Not doing any of the new ponds.  He said you don't need a permit to clean a silt pond out.  No permit needed from the Corp.  That took two months.  If I had known up front the cost for the "Right" would not have wasted the time, effort and engineering expense.

USDA Soil Conservation board-  Concerns- Soil erosion, destruction of any existing farm soil erosion plans. 50 of the 75 acres is farmable.  All 50 acres have been seeded to Brome grass and oats.  There is about 1 mile of farm terraces. We have taken out about 500 feet.  Terraces are old enough they are out of the farm program, otherwise couldn't tear out or would have to pay a penalty.  Normally this would be the end of the discussion with the Soil Conservation group.  But since we are doing a Subdivision, they want to see the lot plans, which we don't have yet.  Surveyor is way behind.  Supposed to get next week.  They want to see how the houses stack up with each other to see if there are any erosion problems house to house.  Normally if you build a single house in the countryside they don't care.  But part of the County Subdivision rules require the Soil Board to sign off.  Once surveyor completes lot plans, they should sign off.  

4th site, is a small 2 acre site:  Starting the permit process.  Will see if I learned anything from the above.

Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early.  And yes, I'm still learning and making mistakes.

Got to love building in Belize.  Getting ready to pour concrete roof and open balcony roof/floor.  Concrete has to set for 45 days before you work on it.