Enumclaw’s wall, driveway, and stormwater rules
On Enumclaw’s building permit exemption page, a retaining wall not over four feet, taken from the bottom of the footing up to the wall’s top, is listed as needing no building permit. A wall carrying a surcharge, or holding back Class I, II, or IIIA liquids, falls outside that exemption. The page does not define surcharge, so we ask the city how it reads a driveway or sloped bank behind a wall.
A driveway or sidewalk escapes the permit requirement while it stays at or under 30 inches above adjacent grade, has no basement or story beneath it, and sits off any accessible route. The same item says a driveway or walk may require a permit from the Public Works Department, so the street end gets its own check. The page does not name patios, overlays, or curb cuts.
On drainage, Enumclaw Municipal Code chapter 14.10 makes property owners responsible for the maintenance, operation, and repair of private stormwater facilities, and it makes it unlawful to discharge contaminants into surface water, stormwater, or ground water. Ecology’s 2019 Stormwater Management Manual for Western Washington is the manual the code adopts, and we check which edition governs each permit.
Nearby, we also build in Black Diamond, Buckley, Auburn, and Bonney Lake, and we serve the rest of western Washington.