Redding, CA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)
Key Facts
- Permitting authority
- City Engineer's office
- Exempt excavation threshold
- Under 50 cubic yards, 3-ft depth
- Mandatory permit trigger
- Within 50 ft of seasonal watercourse
- Design standard
- City Erosion and Sediment Control Manual
- Post-grading maintenance
- 1-year erosion control contract required
Summary
Redding's Grading Ordinance requires a city engineer permit before clearing, grading, or importing or exporting earth material on most sites, with narrow exemptions for small excavations and fills. Any grading within fifty feet of a seasonal watercourse or in a hundred-year floodplain needs a permit regardless of size, and erosion controls must follow the city's design manual.
Except as otherwise exempted in Section 16.12.030 or excepted pursuant to Section 16.12.050(B), no person shall commence or perform any clearing or grading, and no person shall export or import any earth materials to or from any site unless pursuant to a written permit from the office of the city engineer. The permit shall be in the name of the property owner. A separate permit shall be required for each site but may include the entire operation at such site. When grading is to be done within fifty feet of a seasonal watercourse or in the one-hundred-year floodplain of a watercourse, a permit shall be required in all cases. ... Cuts, fills, drainage, utility trenches, and erosion and sediment control shall be designed and constructed in accordance with the Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction (Green Book) adopted edition; the City of Redding Construction Standards; the City of Redding Erosion and Sediment Control Standards Design Manual; and, if the grading is proposed to support structures, the Uniform Building Code.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 48).
Full Breakdown
010, is to safeguard life, health, property, the environment, and public welfare by setting minimum requirements for grading, clearing, and erosion and sediment control. 050 bars anyone from commencing clearing, grading, or importing or exporting earth material without a written permit from the city engineer's office, issued in the property owner's name, with a separate permit required per site; grading within fifty feet of a seasonal watercourse or within a hundred-year floodplain always needs a permit. Narrow exemptions apply only to excavations under fifty cubic yards that are no deeper than three feet, create no cut slope steeper than two-to-one, and don't alter drainage, and to comparably small fills.
140 requires that cuts, fills, drainage, utility trenches, and erosion and sediment control be designed to the Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction Green Book, the City of Redding Construction Standards, and the city's own Erosion and Sediment Control Standards Design Manual. 240 requires the property owner to maintain all erosion- and sediment-control devices and, if permanent improvements aren't built immediately, to contract for a full year of runoff and erosion-control maintenance after grading is finished.
Violations & Fines
Section 16.12.260 expressly declares it unlawful to clear, grade, excavate, or fill without first obtaining the required permit, or to violate any term of an issued permit, and each day a noncompliance continues beyond the first day counts as a separate violation. Because the chapter sets no unique fine schedule, the citywide general penalty applies: a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, six months in county jail, or both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit to grade my property in Redding?
What always requires a grading permit no matter how small the job is?
What erosion control standards apply to a Redding grading permit?
What happens if I grade my property without a permit in Redding?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Redding
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