Better to Ask Forgiveness? (Construction Related)

So I'm trying to finalize the purchase of a home here in Flagstaff, and parking was my main concern about the property. Otherwise, most other stuff is minor. HVAC needs a looksee, a little bit of moisture in the crawlspace against the foundation, and most importantly, a severe lack of parking on a hectic stretch of road. Basically the parking pad is too narrow and oddly shaped, and too shallow to park anything more than a single vehicle off the street in front of the house. I can squeeze my wife's Fit and my Tacoma on the pad, but one of us will be trapped by the other, not to mention doors will uncomfortably close. This also limits my ability to keep a car in the garage and remove it without moving another vehicle.

Note: all the available expansion area is in this photo, the area to the right of the parking pad is a rocky hill, and I do not have private access to the rear of property.

I want to expand the parking by removing a bit of hillside and retaining wall. Move the retaining wall back, give myself an extra 10' of parking, and use the removed material to fill in a drainage ditch with an additional length of pipe to extend my culvert. Everything already exists, I'm just making it wider. When finished it will allow two cars to park side by side and another to park behind those two vehicles.

The drainage ditch is in the county road ROW. The county says "as long as parking isn't within 10ft of property line, you're good" and "no limitations on how wide the culvert can be".

Now, I've had the luxury of being able to talk with original licensed and bonded builder of the property about this plan, and he likes it. Says he should've done it in the first place (8 years ago). He'll even recommend a local excavator to come out and do it for me with a little discount. Says "I know a guy who will have this done in a few hours."

But when I asked him if he had any of the building plans laying around for the house (would make applying for a permit easier) he responded "I probably wouldn't approach the county about it."

Now I imagine that this is because he deals with them quite a bit and knows that if you can do it in a day, nobody will notice, but he's right, involving the county makes this little project much more intensive. Having formally worked in subdivision planning, this is the type of thing I'd laugh at if it crossed my desk. You want a permit to move some dirt? Having worked in municipal permitting, I also know better.

Ultimately, I'll probably end up at least submitting a plan to the county and just factor that into my overall costs, but how would you approach it?

I can visualize what you're describing, almost like it was like that when you bought the house......

getting away with it depends on your neighbors.

mad_machine wrote: getting away with it depends on your neighbors.

The guy to the right is a Sheriff and apparently locally known as a buzzkill at the local bar (which is within walking distance).

Is the guy next door The Sheriff (number one guy in charge) or is he a Sheriff's Deputy (one of the many working under the one guy)?

The drainage ditch is in the county road ROW. The county says "as long as parking isn't within 10ft of property line, you're good" and "no limitations on how wide the culvert can be".

Does the county say that so long as you stay within those limits you can do it without a permit, or do they say that those are the conditions under which a permit application will be approved?

I'd just do it.

Worst case is they tell you you should have had a permit, and double your permit fee (probably $50 or less). They probably won't.

You've asked the questions, and know you are within the guidelines.

Take a few pictures showing the culvert joint is done properly.

Make sure to remind your excavator about his dig permit, in case he hits something buried in the row.

Let me emphasize something...

You are hiring an excavator. It's HIS dig permit, not yours. Don't put your name on it. HE is responsible if he hits something digging in the county right of way.

My recommendations would be different if you were doing it.

Holy cow that is a lot of stairs!

Oh, right, the question. Uh, I'd hire the excavator and tell him what to do. In my opinion, I'm an idiot and hire people to do the things I don't know how to do. If the people I hire tell me I need to do something, then I'll do it. Otherwise, not my problem--my problem is getting fixed, because I hired someone to fix it for me.

Yea it's got a lot of stairs, but we're young and this isn't a forever home.

I'm hoping to maybe have a garage door installed that would have an articulating man door in it. Not sure how much they cost, but it's got be cheaper than installing a side door through 12" concrete block.

Cheaper than the man door, just add a keypad to the outside to open the door whenever you want.

Something like this will run you $20-$30 bucks.

I'm just not sure of the wear and tear on having a door go up and down constantly. Although I suppose it's no different than if you parked in the garage after every trip in the car. We'll see how it goes.

I had a similar condition like on the left when I bought my house.

I ha a local guy dump a load of crushed gravel on the slope.

Leveled it off and made a nice parking space. Later on I built a carport over it.

But in your case, I would first cut it own to driveway level.

pheller wrote: I'm just not sure of the wear and tear on having a door go up and down constantly. Although I suppose it's no different than if you parked in the garage after every trip in the car. We'll see how it goes.

We use our garage door for primary access to our house -- it opens/closes several times a day and has worked for almost 18 years so far. Of course, by writing this post I have now cursed the GDO to fail within the next couple of days..........

Srsly, should not be an issue, and the keypad is way cheaper than cutting a door into your door (insert Xzibit meme here).

Just do it. Take lots of pics, that way if someone does through a fit you can show them you did it right....

I'm with the hire a contractor and 'assume' he will take car of the permits. Act surprised if someone asks why you didn't 'I didn't know, I thought he would'

Has anybody ever heard of restrictions on how much fill need to surround a septic tank?

I didn't mention this previously, but in my picture above, just to left of that little tree is a septic tank.

In the picture below, the area I want to remove is the grass patch where the Realtor's sign is placed.

Again, the builder says that the septic system is no-where near the little tree, and I'm going to ask the Septic Inspector/Serviceman next week if he knows how much distance I need between the tank and a retaining wall, but I was curious if anyone has ever seen any types of regs concerning tanks and the distance between them and retaining walls.

I'd stop asking questions and just do jt

The single garage door at my house tends to be our main entrance.
If it is a yardwork day and I think I might have the door up and down a ton of times that day, I then just pull the release on the opener and the door becomes a manual, self lift type door. Easy Enough.

As for the parking situation, I very much have the opposite of you. No terrain and the ability to park 8 cars in my "driveway" which is more like a parking lot. With 8 cars parked there, I do not have to move any one of the cars to get the others out. They are all accessible.
My house is on a 1/2 acre lot and about 25% of that is concrete. I have about 1/8th of an acre of concrete!

If I have a situation where I need for more than 8 cars, there is the edge of the Country Club parking lot right at the edge of my property. Since it is "off season" now, I currently have 3 cars that have been in the CClub parking lot for more than a week. I will likely keep them there all winter.

Well la tee da.

In reply to orphancars:

Same here. Luckily my Craftsman opener has held up to 11 years of this. I did have to replace the coil spring for the roll-up a couple years ago.

I'd stop asking questions. You're loosing your plausible deniability excuse here

In reply to pheller:

Septic SYSTEM is different then septic TANK.

Tree roots can damage the field pipes, not the tank. The tank is just a concrete box. You DO NOT, however, want to park over the tank.

If you are going to mess with the function of a septic system (i.e.: increase the buried depth of the field lines, etc), that's a different permit and license, and the county will absolutely care if you eff with it.

You are asking too many questions. (Unless the answers effect your willingness to close the deal).

looks like you have a secondary treatment system.Expensive). That box with a light on it most likely being part of the system. On a property like that any flat area is likely your drainfield. Make sure you know where it is and that it is in good shape before you start digging.