Gig Harbor encroachment, wall, and grading rules
Gig Harbor Municipal Code 12.02.010 requires a permit before work over, under, or upon any public right-of-way or easement, and the director of public works or a designee issues it. The Public Works memo applies that permit to any work and signage inside the right-of-way. The city’s permit list names driveway and sidewalk work there. Each project needs its own permit.
GHMC 15.10.020, the city’s residential amendment, lets a retaining wall stand up to four feet tall without a building permit, measured from the footing’s underside to its crest, provided it carries no surcharge. Sidewalks, driveways, and platforms topping out at 30 inches above grade or less also go without one, as long as no basement or story sits under them and they stay off accessible routes. Patios are not named in that item.
Grading has a separate list: excavation or fill of 50 cubic yards or more, or more than one foot deep, and grading that supports a building, wall, roadway, or path. Small annual excavations under 50 cubic yards are exempt only when they stay under one foot deep, and we check each cut before we quote.
Nearby, we also build in Tacoma, University Place, Port Orchard, and Fox Island, and we serve the rest of western Washington.