1012 40TH ST 2016-01-01 MF Import

.� Jeff Heilman �_ From: Allan G ffen Sent Monday, May O5, 2014 2 c3 ptii To: Teresa Weldon Cc: Gerry Ervine; Jeff Heilman; Tony Lee Subject: Bwlding permit height caiculaUon for single family dwelling or 40th Street Teresa—After meeting with Eugene Friday, I visited the site this morning. It is very obvious that he was way off in his calculation of base elevation when he submitred it for building permit. He shows a difference in elevation of 3 feet between point B (west midpoint) and point D (east midpoint), on a site that slopes, on average by about 1575 (10 feet drop in a 60 foot wide Iot = 16.7%). aased on photos of the lot as viewed from the street prior to thc start of construction, the uphill west side of the site was more level than the east side of the lot. It appears that the retaining wall built on the west property line for the house to the wesi may have cast the dirt from that excavation on the uphll; side of the subject lot, thereby creating the shelf on the west portion of the subject lot. Since the plat was approved �n 1981, prior to the change in our method of calculating building height and base elevation, the code requires us ro use the existing grade, rather than the approved topography that the City approved through a land development permit, hke a subdivision. Had Eup,ene taken more care with the establishment of base elevation, he would not have had ro hi�e a surveyor, and we would not be in the position of attempting to review the assumptions of the surveyor. However, since his estimation of the elevation of the midpoints of the rectangle endosing the building footprint were so far off, I am , indined to agree with the surveyor's assumed elevations before excavation. Even if the suroeyor was off �y 2 feet for the assumed elevation of point B, the base elevation would be different by 6 inthes, and not enough to make any difference in impact to the views of the two houses locared on the uphill west side of the subject property. While i do not want to be put in the position of having surveyors create assumptions about elevations Ihat existed prior to construction, in this instance I will agree with the surveyor';work and approve the building height based on this methodology, the site visit, the phoro from prior to construction, contour information on the City's GIS, and the contour elevations in the original plat file. I would like to encourage staff to visit building sites in the future in order to determine if buildings of 2 stories or more on sloping sites may be at risk of exceeding the permitted height above base elevation. While it is not always possible to review all sites, it would preferable to review such permit applications to see if s[aff agrees with th� information provided by the applicant. Thank you for your efforts on this. Thank you also to le(f (or his time and assistance with this prrrnit Allan Giffen t � �� C�