The same load of fill can be a grading permit, part of the house permit, or a lane that refuses the street and the floodplain.
Short answer: there is no national cubic-yard number. Oakland, Seattle, and Clark County, Washington, each set their own triggers based on volume, slope, cut or fill height, cleared area, or hard surface. Dirt work that is part of a building permit may be covered by that permit. Any job that disturbs 1 acre or more also needs a federal stormwater permit.
The truck is in the driveway with a load of fill, and the landscaper says a permit is only for the house. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes the dirt is its own permit. Sometimes a small yard job stays exempt until the slope is steep, the pile is large, or the work reaches the sidewalk. There is no national cubic-yard number. A grading permit is the local approval to excavate, place, or move soil. PermitCove is an independent homeowner guide, not your building department. Confirm the threshold with your authority having jurisdiction before anyone cuts the grade. See our disclaimer.
Related: retaining walls · driveway and right-of-way permits · flood-zone work · protected trees · room additions.
When is moving dirt a permit, not landscaping?
Oakland defines grading as the removal, import, or movement of soil, and it requires a grading permit when the slope or elevation of the site changes. A permit is required before grading when, among other cases, excavation or fill exceeds 50 cubic yards and either the slope is over 20 percent or the cut or fill is taller than five feet. Combined excavation and fill over 500 cubic yards needs a permit too. So does land disturbance on ground steeper than 20 percent, and grading in an area the city already treats as a land-stability problem, at any volume.
Gardening is on Oakland's "not required" list only when combined excavation and fill stay at or under 500 cubic yards, and only for activities that list names. Calling a slope cut a garden does not retire the required-permit list. The city will issue the permit to a building owner or their representative, or to a properly licensed California contractor. One permit can cover a cut and a fill on the same site.
Clark County, Washington, asks whether the parcel is urban or rural, how big it is, and how much earth you will move. On the county handout revised 24 June 2020, an urban site under one acre needs a grading and drainage permit above 50 cubic yards. Larger urban sites and rural parcels use higher cutoffs, up to 200 cubic yards. Confirm the handout is still current before you treat 50 yards as the rule.
Volume, on that handout, is the on-site cut plus fill hauled in. Dirt you dig and set back down is not counted twice. Asphalt and crushed concrete count. Straight compost or bark does not. Being under the yardage does not end the review: stormwater rules can still require the permit, and floodplains or steep geology can require other county permits.
Five questions worth asking before the first load is dumped. The numbers belong to the city named next to them.
Does the house permit already cover the dirt?
Seattle says grading includes excavating, placing, or moving soil, pulling stumps on steep slopes, and installing new pavement. If that work is part of a construction permit, you do not need a separate grading permit. A room addition that cuts a pad can live on the building permit. A yard project with no building permit does not. Seattle also says rockeries or retaining walls four feet or taller, or structural shoring, belong on a construction permit, with the grading inside that permit. Our retaining wall guide is the wall. This page is the soil. Do not export Seattle's four feet. Oakland says a wall built with the grading may need its own building permit, and possibly planning review, on top of the grading permit.
San Diego's Information Bulletin 559, February 2026, is not a "regrade the lawn" handout. It covers private grading on private property where building construction is proposed. The grading plans are separate from the building set and permitted separately, even if you submit both the same day. The work cannot sit in public property, a public easement, or the right-of-way, and it cannot affect public improvements. Special flood hazard areas are not eligible, and neither are jobs under a subdivision improvement agreement. If the cut is in a floodplain, start with the flood-zone guide, not Bulletin 559. If the apron or sidewalk is part of the work, that is a right-of-way permit. A landscaping-only job may be a different San Diego counter. Ask before you treat this bulletin as your form.
What actually triggers the permit?
Four offices, four answers. Use the row for your city, then confirm it.
Seattle's public summary is easy to misread because the first test is an "and." You need a grading permit if you change grade by more than four feet and any one of these is also true: combined cut or fill over 50 cubic yards, a permanent slope steeper than 3 to 1, or a temporary cut steeper than 1 to 1. Separately, more than 500 cubic yards needs a permit even without that four-foot change. So does disturbing 5,000 square feet or more, which includes clearing vegetation, not only dirt. Adding or replacing 750 square feet or more of hard surface is on the list. The city calls this a summary of the grading code, not the code itself.
Mapped hazard areas in Seattle use smaller numbers, including 25 cubic yards in several environmentally critical zones, and any grading in a floodplain needs a floodplain development permit. Those limits apply even when no grading permit is required.
Clearing is the other trap. Clark County treats a change in soil cover as land-disturbing activity and uses that area for stormwater review. If the clearing takes a protected tree, that is a different application. Use the tree guide for the tree.
Oakland adds a calendar. A grading moratorium runs from 15 October to 15 April, and no grading operations are allowed in that window. A permit issued in September does not mean you can keep cutting through November. Ask how the moratorium treats a job already in the ground before you book the excavator.
Grading permit triggers side by side
| Jurisdiction | Volume trigger | Other triggers |
|---|---|---|
| Oakland, CA | Over 50 cu yd with slope over 20% or cut/fill over 5 ft; any job over 500 cu yd | Disturbance on ground steeper than 20%; land-stability areas; no grading Oct 15 to Apr 15 |
| Seattle, WA | Grade change over 4 ft plus over 50 cu yd (or steep slopes); any job over 500 cu yd | Disturbing 5,000 sq ft or more; 750 sq ft or more of new or replaced hard surface; 25 cu yd in some critical areas |
| Clark County, WA | Urban site under 1 acre: over 50 cu yd; higher cutoffs up to 200 cu yd elsewhere | Stormwater rules can still require a permit (2020 handout) |
| U.S. EPA | Not volume based | Disturbing 1 acre or more, or part of a larger plan that will |
Sources: City of Oakland, Seattle SDCI, Clark County, U.S. EPA.
What do you actually turn in?
Bring a limit of work and a real volume. "A few loads" is not a quantity.
Oakland's path is an online account, a signed grading application, plans, an initial statement of the engineer, and the city's grading checklist. Say so if a wall is in the job. The city contacts you if the packet is short.
Seattle wants the lot looked up first: zoning, critical areas, and old violations. A site plan goes in with the pre-application. Disturbing more than 750 square feet, or disturbing most critical-area sites, triggers a pre-application site visit. Steep slopes can require a survey and a geotechnical report unless the city waives them before intake. An issued permit is valid for 18 months. Approved plans stay on site.
San Diego's private-grading packet assumes a building project. Bulletin 559 asks for a stormwater checklist, the limit of grading, property lines, a drainage study, a geotechnical report, and a cost estimate from a registered civil engineer. Inspection fees come from that estimate. You need a pre-construction meeting before any site disturbance, then rough grading and a final. The permit expires 24 months after issuance, or later if it is tied to a building permit.
Clark County requires a civil engineer or geologist on the handout only above 5,000 cubic yards. Under that, ask what a homeowner sketch may be. Do not carry San Diego's engineer rule north, or Clark County's 50-yard line into Oakland.
When a yard project crosses into federal stormwater rules
Most backyard grading stays local. But there is a size where the U.S. Clean Water Act gets involved. The EPA says a stormwater permit is required for construction that disturbs 1 acre or more of land. It is also required for less than an acre when the work is part of a larger plan of development or sale that will disturb 1 acre or more in total (U.S. EPA: Stormwater discharges from construction activities).
A normal lot will not reach that. Where homeowners do run into it is on rural acreage: a long new driveway, a pad for a barn, a pond, and clearing for a house site, all done in one season. Add up the disturbed area before you hire the excavator. In many states the state environmental agency, not the EPA, runs this permit, and your county can tell you who handles it.
Even below the federal size, silt fence and keeping mud out of the street are common conditions on local grading permits. Neighbors complain about muddy runoff faster than about almost anything else.
FAQ
Does bringing in topsoil for a garden count as grading?
Usually not if it is a thin layer. Many cities set limits on how many cubic yards you can move or how deep a fill can be. Large loads or raised areas near property lines are what draw attention.
Who issues the stormwater permit if my project is over an acre?
Often your state's environmental agency. The EPA issues it directly only where it is the permitting authority.
Does a grading permit expire?
Yes. Seattle says an issued grading permit is valid for 18 months (Seattle SDCI), and San Diego's private grading permit expires 24 months after issuance, or later if tied to a building permit (Bulletin 559).
Can I grade during the rainy season?
Not in Oakland, which bans grading operations from October 15 to April 15 (City of Oakland). Ask how your city handles wet-season work.
Last checked: October 31, 2026.
Official sources
- City of Oakland — Grading Permits
- City of Seattle — Grading Permit (SDCI)
- City of San Diego — Information Bulletin 559, How to Obtain a Permit for Private Grading (February 2026)
- Clark County, Washington — Grading and Drainage Review (handout revised 24 June 2020)
- U.S. EPA: Stormwater discharges from construction activities
Bottom line
Ask whether the dirt is inside a building permit, its own grading permit, or a private-grading lane that refuses the street and the floodplain. Then ask the local trigger: volume, height of cut, slope, hard surface, clearing, or a mapped hazard. Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, and Clark County do not share a number, and Clark County's posted yardage is from a 2020 handout. A wall, a curb cut, a floodplain, or a protected tree can be a second application. Confirm the packet before the truck dumps the first load.
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