All Forum Posts by: Chad Ballard

@Chris Field, wetlands are a hot topic now nationwide. This past May there was an new federal rule of what the EPA and USACE regulate under the Clean Water Act. The goal was to reduce the confusion on who regulates what but it really didn't solve that problem and just expanded what they can regulate, go figure. Be interesting how this plays out.

California specifically you will probably need permits from the USACE, Water Quality Board, Fish and Wildlife and CEQA approval (California Environmental Quality Act) if you have wetlands. A lot of permitting work if you want to get your project off the ground.

Had an interesting discussing at the Orange County BP Meetup (everyone should come) with an engineer that deals with solar projects. He has a lot of experience in that area with developers. I can put you in touch since he is in the are but not coming up in the BP search as having an account.

I wish I was smoking dope, but it is true that the costs can vary greatly from location to location and what is included in the quote. I only speak for CA, here is an example of a tentative map application which is required to do a lot split here. Application fees alone are $9k, it goes up to $14 if you want to do 5 or more lots. You still need to pay your civil engineer, soils engineer and land surveyor plus plan check fees, filing fees, etc.

Take a close look and talk to the city about what is required in your area make sure to account for everything.

Welcome, Welcome. Lots of info on BP.

You can try something like Toggl. I use it to track my time for different projects that I am working on.

I can only speak regarding CA but here there are two types: a parcel map (4 lots and under) or a subdivision map (5 or more). There is a lot of work that goes into each. I would expect $50k or so here in CA and at least a year probably 2 to get through the entire process on a straightforward project.

If there is enough interest I can help organize some type of evening event inviting a few engineers, architects or builders in the area to answer questions.

Grey Water Action is a good resource for grey water information and rainwater harvesting. It is getting more and more accepted to have these types of systems.

Welcome to BP lots of great info here, what area of civil do you practice?

The trick is it depends on which side of the transaction you are on. If both parties viewed the candy bar as being valued at $1 then no transaction would take place. The buyer viewed the candy bar as being worth more than $1 and the seller viewed the candy bar as being less than $1. So really any answer other than $1 is correct.