23-105386-SU-Grading Modification Request-12-05-23
December 1, 2023
Electronic Submittal via Document Upload Link
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way
33325 8th Avenue South
Federal Way, WA 98003
RE: Request for Modification of FWRC 19.120.080(1) for Creekwood Preliminary Plat
31000 Block of 22nd Avenue S.W., Federal Way, Washington 98003
Federal Way Preapplication File No. 22-102372-00-PC
(Prior Applications--Creekwood Preliminary Plat (Permit No. 22-105973-SU) and SEPA (Permit No.
22-105974-SE)
Our Job No. 22154
Dear EJ,
On behalf of the owner, Amalani LLC, we are pleased to submit this letter requesting your review and
approval of a modified grading concept for the Creekwood Subdivision. Prior applications for the
Creekwood Subdivision (22-105973-SU) and (22-105974-SE) were recently withdrawn by the applicant in
anticipation of submitting new applications revised in response to the city’s DRC comments summarized in
their May 9, 2023 letter to the Applicant.
Several of those responses were in regard to the proposed “mass grading” of all of the lots in the plat
concurrent with the construction of the plat roads and infrastructure. These are articulated in Section 8 of
that letter on page 5, which have been taken into account in the design for the new application.
Please refer to the attached plan titled “Grading Modification Exhibit”. This exhibit illustrates the steps
we’ve taken to reduce the extent of mass grading along with the associated lot clearing and earthwork.
This is a hybrid plan that is intended to achieve a reasonable balance between the amount of
clearing/grading beyond what’s necessary for the plat roads/infrastructure, and the additional environmental
impacts that will result by delaying the clearing/grading of lots until the building permit stage on an individual
lot by lot basis.
We imported the new clearing limits in CAD onto Sheet 3 of 11 of the prior plan set to confirm the percentage
as well as to highlight where the clearing limits have changed. As can be seen, the new hybrid plan will
reduce the amount of clearing at the plat development stage by 19% as compared to the prior design, which
is a significant reduction.
There are substantial benefits associated with clearing/grading the lots in a Cluster Plat like Creekwood at
the same as the plat improvements are constructed. The most significant of these benefits are
summarized below:
1. The minimum average lot size is roughly 7,500 SF. New homes in a plat like this will end up using
all the lot area for the home, garage, patio, walks, and a reasonable rear yard. Clearing activity
involves tree and brush removal. The stumps/debris are normally ground/chipped onsite in
conjunction with plat development in order to reduce the volume that has to be taken offsite and
disposed of. Many of the trees in the developable area on this site are non-merchantable, which
will increase the volume of chips to be removed offsite.
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way -2- December 1, 2023
These small urban lots will be fully cleared at one time or another. If the lots are cleared at the time
of each building permit, there isn’t room to mobilize a grinder onsite so the woody debris would all
have to be removed in large trucks without the benefit of being chipped to reduce their volume.
This will result in more noise and dust exposure as each lot is cleared, along with more trucks on
public roads and the associated impacts from noise, dirt, dust, and traffic control occurring over an
extended period of time.
All of this will be detrimental to the surrounding residents and the community at large, which would
be substantially reduced by performing all the lot clearing in conjunction with the plat improvements.
2. The Creekwood property has substantial topographic relief to account for in the design of the plat,
even in the developable area where the lots are located. Every lot will have to be graded at some
point in order to accommodate a new home and associated improvements, as well as to allow for
a reasonable driveway grade from the street to the garage.
Performing this grading in conjunction with the plat improvements substantially reduces the total
amount of dirt that would otherwise have to be exported from the site if the lots are graded on an
individual lot by lot basis at the building permit stage.
Exporting excess dirt (topsoil or structural material) from a construction site causes wear and tear
on public roads, along with the potential for dust and mud to end up on these roads, requiring
additional equipment to keep the streets clean, plus having traffic control for trucks entering and
leaving the site.
These impacts can be virtually eliminated entirely if the earthwork can be balanced onsite. While
it isn’t possible to balance earthwork on every residential plat, we can get much closer to a balanced
site if the roads and lots are graded at the same time. It’s also more efficient to move the dirt onsite
using off-road trucks than having to use highway trucks, resulting in reduced fuel consumption,
vehicular emissions, and noise impacts.
3. Grading the lots at the time of plat development so they are “builder ready” eliminates the possibility
of having to construct short retaining walls on side lot lines that might otherwise be required if
graded individually on a site with moderate to steep topography like Creekwood. These walls would
not be necessary if adjacent lots are graded at the same time in accordance with an overall concept
that ensures a smooth grade transition between lots.
In addition to the above, once the lots are recorded and can be sold to different buyers, the work
on each individual lot must be wholly within the lot itself unless an easement or other approval is
obtained from the adjacent lot owner. This is even more complicated if the adjacent lot has already
been graded a certain way, with a house completed and property line fences installed. At that point
it becomes extremely difficult to work in such a confined area without causing unintended adverse
impacts, particularly if the adjacent home is occupied.
All of the above impacts can be completely eliminated by grading the lots to be “builder ready” in
conjunction with the plat improvements.
4. Although cost is not necessarily a consideration, it’s worth noting that the cost to clear and grade
individual lots at the building permit stage will add substantial (and unnecessary) costs to the
finished home, which would then be passed on to future homeowners, thereby making the homes
incrementally less affordable.
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way -3- December 1, 2023
There are a number of factors that contribute to the affordable housing crisis we have in the Pacific
Northwest, with many of these being difficult to fix. Allowing lots to be cleared and graded to be
“builder ready” in conjunction with the plat improvements in an urban plat like Creekwood seems
like an easy solution to preclude one of these factors from adding to the cost of housing.
Given the above, we believe there is ample justification for clearing/grading every lot in an urban small-lot
plat like Creekwood. This is common practice in most jurisdictions in the tri-county area and should be the
approach used for Creekwood.
However, in an effort to reach a compromise solution with the city, we’ve revised the overall clearing/grading
plans for the new Creekwood plat so that Lots 1-5 will not be cleared/graded during the plat development
stage. These lots are all contiguous to each other on the south side of Road A, and are located in close
proximity to the main entry off of 21st Avenue SW. This will result in less impacts to the roads and lot owners
in the rest of Creekwood since most of the truck traffic impacts will occur on offsite non -residential roads
where such truck traffic is more commonplace.
The prior application for Creekwood showed all of the lots being cleared and mass graded in conjunction
with the plat improvements, representing a total of 6.29 acres. As shown on the “Grading Modification
Exhibit”, the total area to be cleared under this hybrid concept 5.12 acres. This represents a reduction of
19% over what was proposed before.
In terms of grading, the prior design for Creekwood anticipated a total of 39,000 BCY of cut and 7,000 BCY
of fill, resulting in a net export of 32,000 BCY. Our revised design reduces the total cut volume by 42% to
a total of 22,700 BCY. We also increased the onsite fill to 12,700 BCY, resulting in a net export of roughly
10,000 BCY. This is a 70% reduction in total export. Some of this is due to delaying the clearing and
grading of Lots 1-5 until the building permit stage, but even when those are graded in the future, the total
export will still be substantially less than what was previously proposed.
In order to achieve this reduction, we had to eliminate one of the lots in order to avoid some of the more
extensive areas of cut. We also eliminated all of the rockeries and MSE walls that were shown previously
in order to make the lots completely level in most cases. Our goal was to achieve a balanced site, but the
site topography as well as the location and elevation of the 2 public road access points, coupled with the
ravine, made it impossible due in large part to vertical curve requirements.
However, the imbalance becomes substantially worse if Lots 6-19 aren’t graded during plat development.
In that event, the total export volume will increase by 5,500 BCY, which translates to about 6,600 TCY. A
typical commercial dump truck carries roughly 12 TCY. This means almost 550 additional truck trips on
existing offsite roads that can otherwise be eliminated simply by grading the Lots 6-19 at the same time as
the plat improvements are built.
In summary, it's difficult to find any benefit to delaying the inevitable clearing/grading of small urban lots
until the time individual homes are constructed. Once the lots are cleared and graded to be “builder-ready”
during plat development, they will be covered with topsoil and hydroseeded. Within a short period of time
they will be fully vegetated, eliminating all potential impacts from stormwater runoff until individual permits
are obtained for each home, while offering a park-like view from the new public roads.
As a result and in conjunction with the new Creekwood Plat application, the applicant is seeking relief from
FWRC 19.120.080(1), which reads as follows:
FWRC 19.120.080 Clearing and grading and land disturbance limits.
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way -4- December 1, 2023
(1) Clearing and grading activities for developments shall be permitted in conjunction with an
approved site development plan (e.g., subdivision approval, site plan approval, etc.) that
establishes permitted areas of clearing, grading, cutting, and filling. Permitted clearing and
grading areas should minimize removal of existing trees and minimize the disturbance or
compaction of native soils, except as needed for building purposes. Permitted clearing and
grading areas and any other areas required to preserve critical or sensitive areas, buffers,
native growth protection easements, or required tree retention areas shall be delineated
on the site plans.
FWRC Section 19.120.050(1)(a-d) allows the Public Works Director to grant a request to modify certain
grading requirements after consideration of four specific reasons found in said section. Each of these
reasons are listed below, along with our responses:
FWRC 19.120.050 Modifications.
(1) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to provide a process for requesting modification
from the general standards specified in this article. The director shall have the authority,
consistent with the criteria provided herein, to modify specific requirements, or impose
additional requirements in unique or special circumstances to assure the fulfillment of the
stated purposes of this article. The applicant must demonstrate one or more of the following
in order to obtain approval of a modification request:
(a) There are no feasible and reasonable alternatives to the clearing, grading or
tree/vegetation removal activity being proposed;
Response: The plat of Creekwood will create 19 small urban lots with an average size
of 7,500 SF via the cluster plat concept in order to preserve over 70% of the site as
natural open space area. Every lot in this plat will be fully cleared and graded once
the plat is built out. The only way to do this work efficiently with the least impact on the
public at large as well as on the environment, is to perform all of it at one time in
conjunction with the initial plat development phase.
If lot clearing/grading is delayed until building permits are issued after the plat is
recorded, it will substantially increase the impacts associated with such work, the
volume of dirt to be exported offsite, and the cost of these homes for future buyers.
This is not a question of whether the lots will be cleared and graded. It’s just a question
of timing.
As such, any delay in clearing and grading the lots until the building permit stage can
only be construed as an “unreasonable or infeasible” alternative, as opposed to the
applicants proposal, which is feasible and reasonable, so this criteria is met.
(b) The proposed modification will result in the same or less impacts than meeting the
standards;
Response: As noted in the above justification, we’ve provided technical evidence to
show that clearing and grading the lots concurrent with the plat improvements will result
in less overall impacts to the public and the environment. Therefore, this criteria is
met.
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way -5- December 1, 2023
(c) The proposed modification will meet or exceed the intent of this article;
Response: The hybrid clearing/grading plan proposed by the applicant meets the
intent of Article II “Clearing and Grading Regulations”. All sensitive or critical areas
and their associated buffers are being preserved and all tree retention requirements
have been met or exceeded.
FWRC 19.120.080(1) specifically permits clearing and grading “...as needed for
building purposes”. The small urban lots being created in Creekwood via the cluster
plat concept will have to be completely cleared and graded to accommodate residential
homes, driveways, and yards, which meets the definition of being needed for building
purposes.
In addition, this code citation does not specifically require that clearing/grading lots be
delayed until the building permit stage. n fact, FWRC 19.120.090(2) states that
clearing/grading shall “...minimize impacts to adjacent properties”. If these lots are
cleared and graded on an individual basis at the building permit stage, we’ve shown
that doing so will create substantially greater impacts to offsite roads and adjoining lots
due to increased truck traffic, noise, dust, and mud.
These additional impacts will be even worse when there are occupied homes in the
plat adjacent to lots that still require clearing/grading. Once someone is living in one
of these homes, the impact associated with clearing/grading on an adjacent lot will be
particularly difficult for both parties, all of which can be avoided if the lots are cleared
and graded during the plat development stage.
Based on the above, this criteria is met.
(d) Meeting the standards would create an unacceptable risk to health or safety.
Response: This criteria is clearly met. We’ve shown in our justification that limiting
the clearing and grading to the minimum necessary to construct the basic roads and
plat infrastructure will result in more environmental impacts over a much longer period
of time. It will result in as many as 550 additional offsite truck trips on public roads to
export soil from the site which pose some incremental level of risk to the public like all
heavy vehicles do.
Any risks, no matter how significant, can be considered unacceptable if there is a
reasonable alternative that eliminates them. In this case, these additional risks can be
eliminated entirely by simply allowing the lots to be cleared/graded to a “builder-ready”
condition at the plat development stage.
EJ Walsh, P.E., Public Works Director
City of Federal Way -6- December 1, 2023
Thank you for your consideration and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or
need additional information.
Respectfully,
Thomas A. Barghausen, P.E.
President
TAB/mf
22154c.018.docx
cc: Barry Margolese, Amalani LLC
Ivana Halvorsen, Barghausen Consulting Engineers, Inc
Barry Talkington, Barghausen Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Teague Aalvik, Barghausen Consulting Engineers, Inc.
GRADING MODIFICATION EXHIBIT
FOR
1 GRADING MODIFICATION EXHIBITCREEKWOOD CREEKWOODPORTION OF SECTION 12, TOWNSHIP 21 N, RANGE 3 E, W.M.FEDERAL WAY, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTONFORFor:Title:
22154
1
AMALANI LLC
415 - 1ST AVE N, UNIT 9998
SEATTLE, WA 98109 SCALE: 1"=50'
CREEKWOOD CREEKWOODPORTION OF SECTION 12, TOWNSHIP 21 N, RANGE 3 E, W.M.FEDERAL WAY, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTONFOR1/3
/23
For:Title:
22154
11
AMALANI LLC
415 - 1ST AVE N, UNIT 9998
SEATTLE, WA 98109
PRELIMINARY EARLY CLEAR AND GRADE PLAN
FOR
3 PRELIMINARY EARLY CLEAR AND GRADE PLANSCALE: 1"=50'BLUE OUTLINE INDICATESCLEARING LIMITS PROPOSEDFOR WITH THE REVISED PLANDATED 11/07/2023GREEN HIGHLIGHTED AREAREPRESENTS REDUCTION INCLEARED AND GRADED AREA.IN TOTAL A 19% REDUCTIONIN CLEARED AREA.