Stormwater & Site Development
Grading, drainage and site plans that survive engineering review
Stormwater is where small residential projects discover they're infrastructure projects. Getting the requirements right early changes what the site plan can be.
Stormwater drives site design more than most owners expect
Washington jurisdictions apply stormwater manuals with thresholds based on new and replaced hard surface and land disturbing area. Cross a threshold and the project picks up flow control, water quality treatment, and low impact development requirements — each of which consumes site area, changes grading, and adds cost.
The requirements are knowable in advance. What causes problems is designing a site plan first and discovering the stormwater footprint second, which forces the whole layout to be redrawn.
What CLD manages
Threshold determination up front, so the project knows which requirements apply before design starts. Coordination with the civil engineer on facility siting, infiltration feasibility, and whether the soils support the LID approach the code prefers. Review of the drainage report against the applicable manual before it goes to the county.
During construction: erosion and sediment control compliance, grading inspections, and making sure what's built matches the approved drainage plan — because as-builts that don't match are a closeout problem that shows up at the worst possible time.
Site development beyond drainage
Grading and earthwork sequencing, utility routing and connection permits, frontage improvements and right-of-way permits, driveway and access approvals, and clearing limits tied to tree retention or critical area conditions. These are separate approvals from separate desks, and they have to be sequenced so one doesn't block another.
What you get
- Stormwater threshold determination and applicable-manual analysis
- Infiltration feasibility and LID approach review
- Drainage report review before agency submittal
- Grading, utility and right-of-way permit sequencing
- Erosion control compliance during construction
- As-built reconciliation for closeout
Bring CLD in when
- You don't know whether the project triggers full stormwater requirements
- A drainage report came back with review comments you can't evaluate
- The stormwater facility is consuming site area you planned to build on
- Grading or clearing has to happen and you're unsure what permits apply
Common questions
Does my project trigger stormwater requirements?
It depends on how much hard surface you're adding or replacing and how much land you're disturbing, measured against the thresholds in the manual your jurisdiction has adopted. This is a quick determination and worth making before design.
Can I just build a pond instead of doing LID?
Washington's stormwater manuals generally require low impact development approaches to be evaluated first, with detention as a fallback where infiltration isn't feasible. Soils testing usually determines the answer.
Do you do the engineering?
No. A licensed civil engineer produces the drainage design and report. CLD determines requirements, coordinates the engineer, and reviews the work against the manual before it's submitted.
Where this service is available
In person across Snohomish County · King County · Skagit County · Island County. Code research and submittal preparation for this scope is also available remotely, nationwide.
Related
Services that usually go with this one
Short Plats & Subdivisions
A land division is an infrastructure project with lot lines drawn on it. The layout that maximizes lots on paper is often not the layout that survives review.
Read more →Critical Areas & Environmental
Critical areas don't make a site unbuildable. They make it a different site than the one you thought you were buying, and the difference is worth knowing early.
Read more →Construction Oversight & Quality Control
The approved drawings describe what should get built. Oversight is the process of confirming, repeatedly, that it is.
Read more →Tell Carol about the project
The first conversation is a straight read on whether the project is workable and what it would take to move it. No charge for that call.