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GRADING AND EXCAVATION MANUAL 2010 Edition

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SECTION 4: MULTI-FAMILY, COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL

Developments of this scale will typically undergo a very specific review and approval process through the Planning Department. As a part of that process, the Engineering Department is referred the proposed plans and asked to comment. Specific requirements and standards that will be applied to these developments will be addressed by the Engineering Department in that referral process.

In general, these development applications will require engineered site plans, drainage studies, traffic impact studies, geotechnical reports for pavement designs for access and parking areas, floodplain and wetland delineations (where applicable), and road designs (where applicable) to be completed by a CO PE or certified consultant for review by the Engineering Department. The Engineering Department should be contacted directly with any questions about the applicability of any of these or other submittal requirements. We will be happy to discuss the need for any of these based on Code requirements, engineering judgment and historical, existing and proposed conditions.

Engineered site plans for commercial, industrial, or multi-family proposals shall be completed by a licensed professional engineer in the State of Colorado, with details and specifications as needed according to standard engineering practice and the conditions on the site, and drawn to the maximum engineer’s scale that shows all proposed improvements on the site. Drainage studies will be completed by a CO PE in accordance with the regulations in §8102: Drainage of the Code. For the purposes of all new developments in the County, the design storm shall be the 25-year, 24-hour event, with a rainfall depth of 2.2 inches, unless otherwise agreed upon by the County Engineer (see §7100: Development Standards for Control of Water Quality in the Code for details). All new developments shall provide facilities which limit developed runoff rates to historic rates for the design storm. In the event that an engineer wishes to use a different method than those prescribed in §8102.01 or §5103.03.D of the Code, special written approval from the County Engineer must be obtained.

The site design standards for these developments are very much the same as those for single-family, with the most notable exception being that accesses for most of these projects must meet a maximum 6% grade rather than 8% (per §5107.03.E of the Code) and the minimum width is 22-feet (per Table 5-12 of the Code). The fact that these projects must include engineered site plans along with site specific drainage and traffic studies generally leads to less confusion, because the development standards in the Code and the Manual are based upon standard engineering practices, and if for some reason an engineer needs to deviate from those standards a well documented justification is provided for their own comfort and insurance purposes, in order to prevent any action being taken against their professional license.

GRADING AND EXCAVATION MANUAL 2010 Edition

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