Lakewood ground, weather, and permits
Most of Lakewood sits on glacial outwash, the sand and gravel that meltwater laid down. The USDA description of the common Spanaway soil calls it somewhat excessively drained, and a USGS geologist put the gravel at more than 100 feet deep in places. Rain soaks in rather than pooling. The wet spots are the exceptions: lots on the groundwater-fed shores of American and Gravelly Lakes, and the Clover Creek floodplain in Springbrook and Hillside.
Building permits go through the city’s Planning and Public Works department and its Online Permit Center, with Engineering handling right-of-way and site development. Lakewood’s code treats land inside the Clover/Chambers Creek aquifer basin as a critical aquifer recharge area, regulates lake shorelines out to 200 feet inland, and applies drainage review to new and replaced hard surface. Before we quote, we look at the city’s maps for your parcel to see which of these apply.
Nearby, we also build in University Place, Tacoma, Spanaway, Puyallup, and Edgewood, and we serve the rest of Pierce and South King County.