Permitting and a Trail

We haven't forgotten about this blog; it's just that things have been moving pretty slowly since we submitted the permitting documents a month and a half ago. We've worked on non-design topics; construction contract, budget, and financing have been the biggest items. We'll talk about some of those a bit more in a future post, once things are mostly settled there.

The biggest blocking piece was the permit from the city. The initial review finished in about a month, and resulted in a request for some revisions. The building reviewer wanted more notes and details on the plans, along with some extra structural engineering for the foundation. At the same time, Yuval decided to revise the foundation to reduce expense. The original design had a slab-on-grade garage, and it required a large retaining wall on the west edge of the garage (i.e., lots of pricey concrete and steel). The revised design modifies the foundation to follow the slope of the land, and uses concrete supports under the garage. The garage will be framed with thick wood with concrete poured on top.

But the major hurdle was trail requirements. When the land was initially divided into the smaller lots for building, Bellevue required some improvements to the land. They wanted the unofficial dirt trail down the hill developed into a real trail with pedestrian and bike lanes and some landscaping. Yuval worked with them, and they changed the requirement to a trail easement, with the development to be done by the city at a later point. Our lot has the easement on it (a 15' foot strip along the south edge). It made our land a bit narrow, but we were able to work within the confines. We weren't too worried about having a trail there, because the neighborhood seems fairly quiet. It would be a huge benefit to us, since it leads down to a lot of shops and buses.

While reviewing our documents, the city told us we needed to do the trail development as part of construction. The trail will be nice to have, but we weren't counting on the extra cost. The hill we're on is steep enough that it will have to be stairs. We're guessing that over 150' of stairs and railing would be significantly more expensive than a bit of sidewalk.

This requirement surprised Yuval too. He represented us (since we now own the land), and did all the work of talking to the city about the issue. Eventually, a legal review found that Yuval had a special agreement with the city for this issue, so we do not have to develop the trail. Instead, we'll work with the city to design it and construction will happen later.

Current status: The revised permits are under review. Since the trail issue has been settled, the main work from the city should be the building review. They know we are on an expedited schedule, so we're hoping the permits will come through fairly soon. And after that, construction!