The City Engineer

It has been so long, I forget the sequence of events regarding the permit process with the City of Lemon Grove.

I do remember it taking an extremely long time to get a permit from the City.  First we needed the grading permit. This required getting approval from the Zoning Department.  We wanted to build as far up the hill as possible, to leave as much land as possible on the other end of the lot, for a future lot split.  We also were trying to get the house as far up hill as possible so that we would not have to pump the sewer for the lower level.

Since we had an odd shaped lot, due to the swath of land taken by the county by eminent domain for the now abandoned College Avenue Extension, it was a challenge to position the house on the lot and meet all the setback requirements. The city's map showed a cul-de-sac along the front (west) side of the lot, ending at the top (south end) of the parcel.  The Director of the Zoning Department helped me understand that there is some zoning code that allowed in a situation like this, to use the side yard for the front yard setback.  And since it was a triangular shaped lot, there is a code that says you measure the back yard set back from a line drawn parallel with the front property line, and measuring 10 feet long.  But we still needed to maintain a 10 foot setback from the property line to the nearest corner of the building.  Once we got all that worked out, and approved by the Zoning Department, it was on to Engineering.  That was one of the slowest and most unpleasant aspects of the permit process.  The City Engineer would require a change to the plan.  I would have my draftsman draw the change, and resubmit it.  Then it would sit on the Engineer's desk for a week or two before he would give it back to me asking for another minuscule change.  Of course each change would take my draftsman a week or so to draw up.  So back and forth, our patience wore thin.  The final item the City Engineer required was that we show a five foot long swale at the north corner of the building site for rainwater runoff.  The funny part of all this is that the swale never was made, because the driveway served for the rainwater runoff.

Plan check for the house plans went equally slow.  Every required change took a week for the draftsman and two weeks for the City plan checker.  I would say that it took nearly six months to get our plans approved and stamped so we could begin building.

In addition to the building permit fees (which included fees for plan check, and fees calculated per electrical outlet and fixture, each plumbing fixture, square feet of living space, square feet of garage & storage, etc.) , we were hit with "Park Fees" of $200, and the major expense were the school fees, which, if I recall correctly were about $2.50 per square foot of living space.  Once our fees were paid, we were permitted to proceed with building the new house!