We've just come off of months of wrestling with the County Planning Department.

[EFerrari]

Working on the main road, grading, compacting, paving. Putting in a storm drain system because there is a lot of run off and the road goes over a dry creek that does get some action in the rainy season. We needed to finish the work in time to get the performance bond released in order to avoid a foreclosure sale. And, we did.

Those brain damaged county engineer idiots moved the goal posts so many times, I was CERTAIN someone was being bribed to force this property to default. It was unbelievable. We'd get a to-do list, do it, and BLAM, there was a new list.

Oh, and they told our lender that WE were holding up the work! F#ck me sideways, they told the lender we were dragging our feet while we worked seven days a week and put every dime into this work and for months.

So, on this "inside information", the lender wasn't going to cut us any slack. It's a good thing I'm not a violent person.

We avoided a sale by fifteen minutes. That's how close the county cut the release of our bond.

Well, that was Monday. Today, I'm almost not numb from fear any more, lol. But it has been raining really hard for a few days and I get in the truck to make a grocery run and low and behold, this road that, as per the county engineers now meets their standards, IS F#CKING FLOODED and will be impassable if the rain keeps up for another hour.

:rofl:

I haven't seen this kind of flooding since the first year we were here and had done no work on it at all. Between then and last week, we graded it and put base rock down and had the run off handled very nicely so we didn't have to rescue stranded cars every time it rained hard.

The road, in other words, was not flooding until the geniuses at the County Planning Department took it on themselves to fix it.

I have to put a jacket on and go back out there and take a picture that we can throw darts at. Words fail me, really.

:rofl:

[enough]

1. Definitely a good idea to get a photographic record, with dates. Not just for fun. (nt)

[EFerrari]

2. I still have have a stress hangover but, yeah, going out there now.

Oh, and Mom tells me that they charged her $1700 for EMAILS during this process. And she doesn't dare protest that until it's over.

Swear to gawd. :rofl:

[EFerrari]

3. Lol

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. Ah. That's nothing.

Now *this* is a road.

[EFerrari]

13. LOL!

:)

[tularetom]

4. Are you in Alameda County?

Years ago we contracted with a guy out on Flynn Road near Altamont to build a pole barn.

Apparently the county planning and building depts. had never seen a pole barn before, so they made us jump through hoops for 18 (yes 18) months before they issued a permit for the building.

And although the issuance of a building permit is supposed to be a ministerial act, they loaded the permit up with all kinds of conditions that had nothing to do with construction of a barn. Things like a new culvert under the driveway (500 feet away from the barn) and grading and paving a new drive approach within the county right of way. And we experienced the same bullshit that you're going through now. We'd meet all the conditions and then they'd come up with another list of new ones. They changed inspectors like 4 times during the project and every new inspector started from square one (doing things like making us dig down to expose footings to make sure they are dug to the proper depth).

At the time, we had built these structures in something like 18 counties in northern and central CA and this was only the second time we ever had to get a building permit (ag buildings were exempt for many years). I lost a perfectly good partner as a result of this clusterfuck, he went back to take over his dad's farm rather than deal with this BS anymore - he saw the writing on the wall. That barn cost the property owner over $70k of which we got paid something like $37k.

THe owner told me later that if he had to do it over he would not even bother with a permit, just take his chances on getting caught.

And even at that it wouldn't bother me except the county and the city of Livermore were jumping backwards through their assholes giving the store away to developers who built hundreds of crappy tract homes and cost the city, county and school districts bazillions of dollars in street maintenance, police and fire services and new school construction.

Sorry you're undergoing this ordeal. If there is anything I can do to help PM me. I've had experience dealing with these issues.

[EFerrari]

5. Santa Clara.

And these @ssholes do things like show up for an inspection hours early, don't call any of our cell numbers, don't come up to the house but talk to an English challenged workman, and write me an email telling me they "walked the property with the contractor".

They are treating this driveway as if it was a road. Fire marshal signs off, the country says it's not up to specs for firetrucks. That kind of sh!t.

Somewhere, there is a palm that needs greasing, I guess. It's just unreal, to the point where just normal people can't develop anything around here because they can't hire an "expediter" to deal with the county, which means someone who knows what to grease and when.

Thanks, Tom. I was afraid my little mom was going to have a heart attack over their bs. But I'm so proud of her. She's dealt with it like a champ.

[tularetom]

8. The entire permitting process is set up to help developers

Because these guys are generally big political contributors, they get the city councilors and county supes to lean on their staffs to loosen regulation on large scale residential and commercial developments.

The average land owner who just wants to build an addition to his home or erect an auxiliary building doesn't have those connections so he gets no relief from the often poorly thought out conditions attached to permits.

Having spent my entire working life on one side or the other of this process, all I can say is I'm glad it's somebody else's problem now.

I may write a book.

Good luck to you and your mom.

[EFerrari]

9. We should start a blog.

Honest.

lol

This process for average property owners is the road to ruin. That has to be by design.

My mom has a relationship with the biggest developer in the valley, though. She helped him as a realtor on a couple of projects and he might be willing to lend his name to this. That would help in a lot of ways.

But these jerks at the county need to be pulled up somehow because they nearly put us out on the street in the process of completely screwing up a perfectly good road. :crazy:

[Kurovski]

6. Holy shit, eh?

What a life, what a world.

There god damn better well be a good and hot hell at the other side, that's alls I got to say. Especially for "idiots" who cause suffering of all sorts.

[EFerrari]

7. "Who are those guys and what do they want!"

(I'm keeping a journal, sonuvabitches!)

[bbinacan]

10. That's government at your service.

Don't get me started on PennDot.

[FedUpWithIt All]

11. Damn. We put in an 1800 ft drive about a month and a half ago.

No permit, no hassle at all. We live small and rural in WV. Our place is partially in the city but there was no issue. I am really glad too because the hassle of the actual road construction was enough stress. I wouldn't have been able to cope with issues you guys were forced to deal with.

:crazy: