I’ve been a bit quiet as things are a bit slow right now.
We ordered a small tractor but because Paul’s had tractors before, he knew exactly what he wanted. So, he ordered it. They (Kubota) said we’d have it in August. Then, mid-September. Now, end of October. Supply chains are a mess right now. And, well, without a tractor – moving large amounts of dirt, sand, gravel – is painfully slow. And, really, just painful. We brought in some sand (that was the worst). I did hand move LOTS of pea gravel and even though it was also tiring, I kind of got into a Zen thing with it and even enjoyed it… a bit.
But, the main point… not only is the tractor slow but so are many other things. I’ll try to give you some background.
Originally, we asked the county for an address. We aren’t living there yet but we want to have deliveries and a way for people to know that they’re headed to the right place. Yes, we can give them detailed directions but ultimately, we DO need an address. Anyway. this is what happened.
ME: Can we get an address.
COUNTY: They said – which parcel?
ME: I told them that we were going to use the parcels as “one” but alas, that’s not how the county sees them.
So, I had two options:
- I could get legal easements written between all of our parcels. While, I understand the logic of this – it seems a bit strange to work with a lawyer to construct legal documents allowing ME to access MY parcels. But, the idea is that if we were to ever sell ONE of the parcels, it would still have access. OK, but I don’t feel like paying for all the legal fees and writing up all of these docs. And, if I’m going to have to keep doing things for “access across the parcels” can’t I do anything else?
- I could create “one lot of record” for all 3 parcels so that they are essentially treated as one. Voila – this is what I want.
Going with option 2 SEEMED like an easy one but alas it opened up a new can of worms. I’ll suffice it to say that eventually we got this sorted. Now, we have one lot of record.
ME: Ok, so can we have an address?
COUNTY: Ah, I see you have one lot of record – where is your access road?
ME: It’s the one we’re using?
COUNTY: That’s not a REAL road, it’s a logging road. It’s not allowed for residential access.
ME: Oh, ok. What does that mean? And, how do I make it residential.
COUNTY: You need to apply for a “road access permit.”
ME: OK.
So, I go and fill out the paperwork for a “road access” permit.
Then, I start chatting with a county person that says, for any NEW roads, you need to do a CAR (Critical Area Review).
ME: These aren’t new roads, they’re existing logging roads.
COUNTY: They still need to be reviewed.
ME: OK, I guess that makes sense. How do I setup a CAR?
COUNTY: You file for another permit.
Now, at the SAME time, I was chatting with some OTHER folks about the area where we *eventually* want to build our house. We don’t have any definitely plans or exact locations for anything YET but we *generally* know where we want to put the house. So, I was also “converting” some of this area OUT of DFL (Designated Forestland) so that we could start putting some storage there (just a container) and start removing some of the small trees that we know would be too close for safety (from fire, etc.) to the house. And, it’s (obviously) a lot easier to clear trees when they’re Christmas-tree sized rather than 30+ feet high. So, I ALSO had permits started to convert 3acres of the land to residential. That was SUPER easy. But, I also wanted to talk to someone about eventual building permits as well. And, after the land was converted they also said I needed a CAR for where we were going to build.
Luckily, since this was “one lot of record,” I could do BOTH of these things with ONE CAR permit ($324 once, instead of twice – OK, bringing things together as one lot of record has paid off already. Woot). IMPORTANT: There are reasons why some of you might NOT want to convert into one lot of record, especially if you ever want to separate / sell any of the parcels. So, while this was good for me; it might not be good for your situation.
OK… I felt like I was on track. One of the county folks came out to do the CAR and was really nice. We mentioned where we had ideas to build the house, possibly a barn, etc. The county person left…
We received the formal details from the CAR and they said that everything was possible but because there are terraces on the parcel, we need to have a geohazard site assessment to determine proper setbacks and any issues.
OK, to be honest, I figured we’d need to do something like this at some point. And, while it’s not inexpensive, we’re going to assess as many areas as possible to determine where we can and cannot build. I felt pretty good about where things were going. But, then I asked.
ME: The geohazard site assessment is for setbacks/building – what about the road access. Is that blocked too? Or, can we get an address?
COUNTY: Where do you want to BUILD a road? And, BTW, you can get an address at any time.
ME – TOTALLY confused. I went through the whole thing saying that part of the CAR was to do the road access assessment for the EXISTING ROADs. So, they came back and then said, OH……. you need to get with one of our residential road guys. So, they passed on my info and a few days later I received an email / report:
COUNTY: The apron will need some grading to meet current road standards and vegetation will need to be trimmed to obtain minimum sight distance.
And, because we connect to a county road we need to deal with ROW (right of way) and our contractor has to have commercial liability. So, while we ABSOLUTELY would always want to deal with things safely, we now have quite a few items on the pending list:
- We’re working with our contractor already to do some maintenance on our old gate… when they’ve got all of their equipment over for the gate (which requires large concrete bases [something like 4-6 cu. yards per side for the supports since this is a large logging road and we’re going with a beefy gate for added security], then they can also do the road work.
- Then, there’s the brush clearing (basically a giant bank mower to run around all of our roads). We’ve been waiting on this because the top plateaus of the property have been really dry with the extreme heat we’ve had this summer… it really just wasn’t safe to run bank mowers all over such dry terrain (and with so many rocks!) as they could spark… and start a fire. This is something we definitely didn’t want. So, we’ve put this off until Fall. And, yes, it’s definitely been raining a lot for the last few weeks. Now, we can have them do the entire property as well as our main road access area.
- Finally, we’re working with a county-approved vendor for the geological hazard site assessment. And, while they’re out for the assessment and we’re digging numerous holes to determine soil make-up and stability, we’re also going to do a soil characterization report. This is at an added cost but will give us a lot of insight into how to best design our storm water plan.
So, that’s why I’ve been so quiet. We’ve been waiting for rain. We’ve been waiting for crazy supply chain problems to subside (or, at least our turn in line to come up). We’ve been unraveling the red tape. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to sound negative. All of this is actually reasonable. It’s just A LOT. And, well, you should add that to your list on whether or not you want to embark on a process like this.
And, I completely and totally stand by one of the most important things I’ve said before – you better not be in a hurry for ANY of this (if you do). There are a lot of steps to go through. I’m just glad we have the time to do this right! And, despite all of the steps – Skagit County has been really helpful getting me to each step. So, I can’t thank them enough.
Thanks for reading,
–k
