Question for Atlanta Builders. Need help!

[Tyler Willis]

Hi BP! Hope everyone is having a great day so far in Atlanta. I have a question regarding a peice of property I am looking to pick up. The home is in Dekalb Co and is a tear down. It's a double lot but there's an issue because there is a small stream flowing through the back of the property. I know that in order for this deal to be worth while at all I would have to get a stream variance. I've never gone through this before and I am curious to see if obtaining the variance would be a headache or pretty straight forward. A survey was recently conducted by the owner and it's come back that the home is in no way a part of a flood zone. But should I still be worried about this stream situation. Any idea on how long it may take to obtain one and what cost would it be to in fact try to obtain one. 

Any insight you have would be great folks. Thanks a lot!

[Mike Salisbury]

gaswcc.org/docs/eands/IARSTREAM509.ppt

The first step will be to have a Professional Engineer draw and stamp the proposed design to submit to DeKalb. Maybe your surveyor could do this. They would have to hold a Level 2 gaswcc certification which is common. Most streams are state water ways the doc above speaks to that.

Application:

http://planningdekalb.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Stream-Buffer-Variance.pdf

I believe its $200 to apply. Everything you would need is in the above PDF.

The planning dept. in DeKalb works better than the bldg. dept. but they are busy.  I would expect 30-60 day turn around.

Best of luck!