Bypassing The City's Watershed Flood Department For Permits - How Do I Raise A Lot Inexpensively/Creatively?

[Bryan Hancock]

Scenario:

-We bought a lot that was going to the tax auction several months ago. We got a great price on it so not a lot of value is at risk relative to the cost of working through the scenarios described below

-We engaged an architect and went through permitting at the city. All was well until

-The Watershed Department is refusing to sign off on our permit because they claim (It isn't) the property is in the 25-year floodplain (more on this below)

Additional Details:

-GIS maps and FEMA both show the property to be in the 100-year floodplain

-We can get flood insurance on the property

-The plans were redrawn where the base elevation is above what the city claims the 25-year plain is

We have talked to attorneys, flood engineers, etc. and we're weighing our options about how to proceed. The problem we're trying to avoid is going through the city council to get a variance, which could take forever in Austin right now. It is also uncertain whether or not the council would grant a variance. Our position is that we don't need a variance and we're still considering suing the city because they failed to disclose these issues during our short due diligence period. We visited the right departments, but they didn't alert us to a special form we needed to fill out. Even if we did fill out this special form the time for them to process it would have been too long and we would have needed to close sooner for this deal. Permits are taking around 3 months at the city right now and we only had a few weeks to close this deal.

My question:

Can you think of a creative way to raise the area where the house sits by a few feet? I was thinking of trying to do *something* with a surveyor to decrease the lot size such that the average height of the lot is raised. The lot is higher in the back than it is in the front. Would an easement help here? Something else?

I am also thinking of moving some dirt from the front of the lot to the back to minimize the expense in bringing in new dirt to raise things. I can pull the lot dimensions or post a survey if it would be helpful to anyone in providing a potential solution.

The bottom line is that I need to shrink the lot *some*, but not too much because the size of property that can be built depends on the surface are of the lot. Cutting space off of the front via surveying methods would increase the average height of the lot some. Moving dirt from the front to the back would also increase the lot height some.

2nd Question

How "compact" does the soil in the back need to be if we move dirt or other material back there? The soil would presumably be more porous and less compacted if moved from the front to the back and thus this would decrease the amount that needs to be purchased.

Any other creative solutions are certainly appreciated. This is a city problem with issuing the permits and will not present any more problems if we're able to get them.