Putting up a shop in CA - fire department being a pain

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ESP47

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I'm on an acre and having a metal shop put up in the back of my lot. So far the fire department has been 10x more of a headache than the county. They are requiring a compaction report because to get to my shop you drive on my asphalt driveway, then a 100ft gravel driveway (which is really just gravel on top of the soil, non compacted) and then there's about a 50ft run of dirt after the gravel driveway. Fire department says they want a compaction report on the gravel driveway and dirt to see if it'll hold their 70,000lb trucks.

I'm calling around to get quotes and every geological survey company is saying that they cannot sign off mere dirt alone being good enough to support a 70k truck and that I will need to pave the entire 150ft run...which basically adds another 60-70% of added cost on top of the shop and slab. Definitely not what I budgeted for.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I mean surely not everyone has a paved path all the way back to any and every permitted building in their backyards. It just seems excessive and basically puts an end to my dream of having a shop and the deposit I already put down on the building.
 
ESP47 said:
I'm on an acre and having a metal shop put up in the back of my lot. So far the fire department has been 10x more of a headache than the county. They are requiring a compaction report because to get to my shop you drive on my asphalt driveway, then a 100ft gravel driveway (which is really just gravel on top of the soil, non compacted) and then there's about a 50ft run of dirt after the gravel driveway. Fire department says they want a compaction report on the gravel driveway and dirt to see if it'll hold their 70,000lb trucks.

I'm calling around to get quotes and every geological survey company is saying that they cannot sign off mere dirt alone being good enough to support a 70k truck and that I will need to pave the entire 150ft run...which basically adds another 60-70% of added cost on top of the shop and slab. Definitely not what I budgeted for.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I mean surely not everyone has a paved path all the way back to any and every permitted building in their backyards. It just seems excessive and basically puts an end to my dream of having a shop and the deposit I already put down on the building.
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Not trying to be a jerk here, but have you asked them if they have 150' of hose on their 70,000 lb. trucks...
I have never heard of such nonsense, and I deal with the local fire dept. regularly and have done so for years. How do they respond to farm or brush fires?
Oh, I see you're in CA... do they want you to install charging stations for the electric firetrucks they're going to be required to get, also?
I feel sorry for you. Speak with your local building inspector or local councilman/woman.
 
To much red tape to live there they probably will want a fire hydrant next to the building also but good luck in your quest
 
Hire a good lawyer and have him tell them to go F@@k themselves. That would not fly where we live in Illinois. The only time we ever had the government try and infringe upon our constitutional right to freedom and privacy was when the city said we had too many cars. This was an ordinance "violation" that was not passed by a referendum of popular vote but rather by a small-town board. I had to threaten to sue the city board members individually and as a result they would have to pay their own attorney fees. That was the last I heard of it and we bought 2 more cars!
 
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Professor Fate said:
Not trying to be a jerk here, but have you asked them if they have 150' of hose on their 70,000 lb. trucks...
I have never heard of such nonsense, and I deal with the local fire dept. regularly and have done so for years. How do they respond to farm or brush fires?
Oh, I see you're in CA... do they want you to install charging stations for the electric firetrucks they're going to be required to get, also?
I feel sorry for you. Speak with your local building inspector or local councilman/woman.
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The area of dirt in the back would get them to within 100' of the shop. They said they have to be within 150' so you're right about the 150' hose.

I expected the county to require all sorts of CA bullshit but not the fire department. Your question about farm and brush fires is a good one.
 
Actually they may have a point as they don't want a truck stuck to it's axles in muck.

I've been involved with small to huge jobs and a properly designed job requires grading. More importantly remove, recompact to the satisfaction of soils tech compaction tests prior to placement of gravel.
 
Ask the geological survey company if you get someone with a bob cat and scoop off the gravel, then scoop off the soil, then replace gravel if it would meet requirements. Soil under gravel would still sink a 70,000 lb truck.
150' hose question seems valid.
 
Don't know anything about this, nor have I ever dealt with this, but a firetruck puts out water, right? So where would the water go? All over the place, meaning your yard, the drive....and that would make everything pretty soft, I would imagine.

Not taking sides, but this makes me think the fire department may simply be covering their ***, given today's litigious society. After all, getting a wrecker to haul-out a 70k pound firetruck is gonna make a mess.

Still, I would think there should be a way around this, so Good Luck!
 
If the fire department chose to buy a 70,000 pound fire truck partially with this man's tax money and then adopt all these requirements for compaction and load requirements they should pay for it. I have never heard of a fire department being able to dictate how a free private citizen supposedly protected by the United States Constitution builds his private driveway on his own property. Our fire department is all voluntary. Every year they sponsor a huge cash bash, and the community supports their needs. If they get the truck stuck, we all help them get it out.
 
What part of Sacramento are you at anyway, with an acre of property?
I'm right here in Rancho Cordova, Commiefornia, next door to you, and this is the first that i ever have heard of this fire truck thing.
 
I found changing my "shop/garage" to "barn" , changed a lotta my rules , mainly height. Garage 13 ft high.
Barn. - no restriction.
FireDept. - width only .existing driveway
 
I'm out in Granite Bay. I had no restrictions but the local fire department required a "Fire Impact fee" of 50 cents per square foot of the shop.
$804 for that...I have yet to see a benefit from that expense.

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Thanks guys I just got off the phone with a different lady and she said just keep calling around because other people have found companies that will write off on a compaction test for just the dirt and no extra construction is necessary unless the dirt is just naturally too soft. She couldn't give me any recommendations so I'll keep calling around. My neighbor had it done under his foundation before they laid the slab but unfortunately I can't get that company to call me back.

I'm also in Granite Bay hemi71x. @Kern Dog I'm surprised that they had you pay 50 cents per sq/ft. The county told me I needed to go to South Placer fire to pay their mitigation fee, which would be around $1sq/ft. To my surprise I found out that the fee was only necessary if I had an Ag building, whereas the shop required no fee whatsoever other than the $175 intake fee and then this surprise compaction report that will likely cost a grand if everything goes perfectly.
 
ESP47 said:
I'm on an acre and having a metal shop put up in the back of my lot. So far the fire department has been 10x more of a headache than the county. They are requiring a compaction report because to get to my shop you drive on my asphalt driveway, then a 100ft gravel driveway (which is really just gravel on top of the soil, non compacted) and then there's about a 50ft run of dirt after the gravel driveway. Fire department says they want a compaction report on the gravel driveway and dirt to see if it'll hold their 70,000lb trucks.

I'm calling around to get quotes and every geological survey company is saying that they cannot sign off mere dirt alone being good enough to support a 70k truck and that I will need to pave the entire 150ft run...which basically adds another 60-70% of added cost on top of the shop and slab. Definitely not what I budgeted for.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I mean surely not everyone has a paved path all the way back to any and every permitted building in their backyards. It just seems excessive and basically puts an end to my dream of having a shop and the deposit I already put down on the building.
Click to expand...

After Paradise burned to the ground the state building code was changed to improve fire department access to properties and buildings. That part of the fire code actually draws a distinction at 1 acre and above, so a bunch of the access requirements for properties over 1.0 acres are different than for properties under 1 acre. Why that was chosen for the split I don’t know, but that’s what it is.

There’s an entire section on road/driveway widths, as well as turn around locations specified depending on the length of the run. This is all so fire engines can not only access your property, but also leave in a hurry in case of extreme wildland fire behavior.

I don't know specifically about where you’re at, but you can get permit variances depending on the situation. The size of the building, property, and access distances will all play a role. My suggestion would be to talk to the fire inspector directly and see why they want that report specifically.

A 70k lb truck would be a ladder truck, so, the distance has nothing to do with hose and everything to do with the length of the ladder to put up an aerial master stream. If you don’t have a giant building, that’s not something that would happen anyway.
 
I built mine in 2006. Things may have changed since then but it sure is rare to see the government DROP any sort of fee.
 
Calif.= annal retentive?
There are reasons people leave Ca. for Tx. By the way, we are FULL except for Austin!!! You guys can afford Austin!!!!!!! Bring your own bottled water.
 
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