You are talking about the home of Skid Row and the underground
city aren't you? The area that is prone to sliding down the face
of the hill, right? I think I remember Pike's market being 3 or 4
stories tall to get one city block.

All kidding aside, I think you need an architect more than any
other trade/profession. He will have contacts with the requisite
engineers and will have knowledge, if not influence, about working
with the city. Most builders in your area will be at least mildly
familiar with the heroics of stabilizing and reworking steep
ground. I'm sorry, I don't see a lawyer as being of much use
under these circumstances. For that matter, I can't think of many
times that they are of much use. ;-)

(top posted for your convenience)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi there, I saw some other home-building posts in this group,
but let
me know if this is off topic.

There's a 3485-sqft piece of land for sale near where I live
(Seattle).
I like its location, and water/sewer are available at the
street, but
according to the city of Seattle, about half of the lot is
declared as
"above 40% grade", so certain permit restrictions apply. From a
quick,
uneducated visual inspection of the lot, it looks to me like it
is
possible to build a single-family house with a small footprint
there -
it's not a cliff face or anything. But I'm no builder. So how do
I find
a LOCAL expert in building on steeply graded lots? Is this
expert going
to be an engineer, architect, or what? (Even if you're not from
Seattle, maybe you can tell me who to look up in the yellow
pages...)

From this expert, I first need to find out whether builders will
even
touch the lot. Maybe builders will instantly see that as soon as
they
begin excavating there will be a landslide. On the other hand,
maybe
the lot is easily regradable. I have no idea.

Second, if builders are willing to work with this lot, I need to
know
whether we can convince the city of it. The project will
probably
require some special permits regarding regrading, etc. I need to
know
how hard it is to get such permits.

Anyone know how to find an expert that can help me with these
things?
There must be some around, because Seattle is pretty hilly. Come
to
think of it, I've seen houses on lots much steeper than this
one, so
it's been done before...

Thanks, and happy building,
Eva