Cleveland, OH Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

03(a) of Cleveland's grading, excavation and soils chapter requires anyone who owns, possesses or controls property to obtain a permit from the Director of Building and Housing before any grading or filling that permanently changes the elevation or contour of the land. Subsection (b) extends that requirement to smaller jobs, even a move of less than 500 cubic yards needs a permit if it borders other commonly owned or controlled work areas that together exceed 500 cubic yards. 03(c) exist for cemetery grave work, public right-of-way work, exploratory soil borings by a licensed engineer, temporary utility trenches, and excavations or fills that stay under five feet deep or three inches high and 100 cubic yards per 5,000 square feet on flat, stable terrain, but phased work that crosses those thresholds over twelve months still needs a permit.

Drainage is folded into the same permit review. 04(c)(6) requires the application to include "all drainage provisions which shall be of such design to adequately handle the surface runoff," a map of the tributary drainage area, and the estimated peak runoff in cubic feet per second. 01(d) separately bars draining surface water onto a neighbor's property without written permission and requires positive drainage, catch basins or underdrains, wherever grading would otherwise let water pond into a nuisance or hazard.