Lake Stevens wall, grading, and impervious rules
The city code requires a building permit for every retaining wall four feet and higher, and walls over four feet from the bottom of the footing must be engineered. Any wall that carries a surcharge needs a permit regardless of its height. The city’s retaining wall handout, approved in December 2022, says a wall is permit-exempt only when it is under four feet tall and carries no surcharge. The state guideline uses a not-over-four-feet line, so at exactly four feet the city rule is stricter.
Section 14.50.120 sets a band for excavation, grading, or fill from 50 cubic yards up to 100, and the grading checklist approved in January 2025 treats 100 cubic yards or more as a major permit. Grading tied to an approved building permit or approved construction plans is exempt under section 14.50.115.
On stormwater, the city’s permeable surface fact sheet lists patios and driveways among common impervious surfaces, and its low impact development checklist asks for a flow-control decision once effective impervious surface passes 10,000 square feet. Work inside the public right-of-way needs a permit under the city’s handout.
Nearby, we also build in Snohomish, Marysville, Everett, and Monroe, and we serve the rest of western Washington.