Adding to your house when there's a creek in your yard
We're preparing for a remodel and addition to our California bungalow, but we recently discovered that the City of Berkeley prohibits additions within a certain distance of a creek. According to their maps, there is an open creek in our yard, but we have never seen it. Neither have our neighbors, who supposedly have the same creek running through their back yards. We will soon have an architect looking into this, but meanwhile, we wonder if anyone preparing to add on to their house has faced this kind of problem?
Mar 1, 2018
Parent Replies
We did an addition on our house in 2008 and this came up for us. It was a long process! There are certain restrictions on construction due to setbacks based on your lot, but also setbacks based on the creek. So for example, if there is a creek in your yard, you can only construct a dwelling up to the setback (hypothetically, let's say 10 feet from the creek border). Depending on where your creek is located, it might very well affect whether or not you can do the construction you want.
In our case, we had a "creek" under our house that went from San Pablo Park, under our lot at an angle, and ended at San Pablo Avenue. We found out about it when we were planning our own remodel. Our architect did an amazing amount of work with the planning, zoning, and creeks ordinances departments in the City of Berkeley and we were able to get our creek taken off the list of creeks in the ordinance, and we were able to do the work we wanted. A few weeks ago, I was at the zoning department and I saw the creek was no longer listed on my property.
Please consider contacting our architect, Turk Kauffman at turk [at] trka.net (510) 847-0897. He has a lot of experience with this and will definitely be able to help you.
The "creek" is very likely in a culvert, which runs under the property. If there is a culvert, it will be an uphill battle in Berkeley to develop on it. It's also possible that it has been long since diverted. If this is something that was never disclosed when you bought the house, you may want to review your title insurance policy (good for the life of your home purchase) and see if you can make a claim, since this seriously affects the value of the home, both for you, and future owners.
Speaking as conservation planner from another area, not as someone experienced in this situation in Berkeley. It's not uncommon for a creek to be mismapped, and hopefully City of Berkeley is understanding to such a situation. Note that their Code (Section 17.08.030) defines a creek as follows: "Creek" means a watercourse (1) that carries water from either a permanent or natural source, either intermittently or continuously, in a defined channel, continuous swale or depression, or in a culvert that was placed in the general historic location thereof; and (2) the water either merges with a larger watercourse or body of water, or is diverted into an engineered structure that does not follow the general historic course of a creek. A "creek" does not include any part of an engineered structure developed for collection of storm or flood waters (e.g. a storm drainpipe) that does not follow the general historic course of a creek. 1. A "permanent or natural source" includes a spring, artesian well, lake, estuary, or a rainfall drainage area that covers at least one-third acre (14,520 square feet).
If there's no "defined channel, continuous swale, or depression," I wouldn't think you'd be bound by the setbacks. Note that biologists/planners may be very liberal in this definition, e.g., if there's any topography that might concentrate water flow.