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I live in western Wake County near Green Level Church Road, and wondering what are the rules for impervious surface areas. Is a screened porch calculated as part of impervious surface used? I tried searching for this, but found no documents. I did see that screened porches are not counted in Chapel Hill, but no information for Wake County.
Basically, the builder over here seems like they have exceeded the limits for some houses, and not for others. How would they have gotten past the surveying? or maybe I am just very bad at my calculations.
I don't believe I live in a watershed area - so what is my limit I can build on my land?
I live in western Wake County near Green Level Church Road, and wondering what are the rules for impervious surface areas. Is a screened porch calculated as part of impervious surface used? I tried searching for this, but found no documents. I did see that screened porches are not counted in Chapel Hill, but no information for Wake County.
Basically, the builder over here seems like they have exceeded the limits for some houses, and not for others. How would they have gotten past the surveying? or maybe I am just very bad at my calculations.
I don't believe I live in a watershed area - so what is my limit I can build on my land?
They can take impervious surface from one lot and add it to another.
So, if you're in a neighborhood with one builder or a group working together, they can look at all the other houses they have in process and figure out where to find some extra impervious space.
Devious, eh?
They get the certificate of occupancy, you close on the house, and you find out later that despite your yard not having a huge, brick patio out back, YOU cannot get a permit to add one because if you do, your neighborhood will be over the limit.
Crafty, I say. Crafty.
Not sure about screened porches. I was thinking it applied to anything with a roof on it or anything like brick or concrete that covers the ground. Or, say.. pools.
Of course, if you are building without a permit and your HOA approves it, so long as nobody from the city/town ever questions your patio.... you're fine.
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You do need to check local code requirements and definitions - but, in general, a screened porch would be impervious because of the roof. A deck is usually not considered impervious. It may get tricky as "deck" here assumes a floor that allows rainwater to pass below it (i.e. wood 2x4 material with a gap between boards). A deck with a solid floor (i.e. tile) would seem to be impervious.
A pool generally does not count as impervious as it has enough spare capacity to absorb rainwater that falls in it.
Definitely call the town of Cary as they (or Wake Co) are who enforce it. They should be able to look up the area for the neighborhood like RedZin is talking about.
A pool is actually not counted towards impervious surface, as it does not add to the water run-off amount. It retains the rainwater. The pool decking is considered impervious. I guess if you did a wooden deck around your pool, it would have no impact, other than look really odd if it was in ground.
There is a list of watershed managers on the Wake County website. I found the Swift Creek watershed manager to be very helpful last fall when we were house hunting for properties in the Lake Wheeler area, with a requirement that we needed enough free impervious surface area to add a pool.
You should check on Imaps to see if your lot has a deeded impervious surface limit on your plat that may be above the percentage limit in your area. I know in our neighborhood, there is a large amount of greenspace owned by the HOA that is not developable. The impervious surface area from the greenspace was allocated to the additional lots, so my lot has much more impervious surface available than the watershed area I am in.
HouseBuilder, do you live in the development? If not you will find that the rules that apply to people outside of a development are much different than for those inside of the development. The county/town has rules that are much stricter since they prefer to prevent you doing anything to your property that will interfere with its eventual rezoning to a higher tax-base use. As stated earlier in this thread, developers can do things on a global basis like have areas which would not meet rules for the county/town if examined as individual properties. Otherwise, how can you build a 3000 sq ft 1-story on a 4000 sq ft lot? Meanwhile you need to fight to build a 1000 sq ft garden shed on a 5 acre property that already has a separate house, workshop or barn, and garage.
A pool is actually not counted towards impervious surface, as it does not add to the water run-off amount. It retains the rainwater. The pool decking is considered impervious. I guess if you did a wooden deck around your pool, it would have no impact, other than look really odd if it was in ground.
There is a list of watershed managers on the Wake County website. I found the Swift Creek watershed manager to be very helpful last fall when we were house hunting for properties in the Lake Wheeler area, with a requirement that we needed enough free impervious surface area to add a pool.
You should check on Imaps to see if your lot has a deeded impervious surface limit on your plat that may be above the percentage limit in your area. I know in our neighborhood, there is a large amount of greenspace owned by the HOA that is not developable. The impervious surface area from the greenspace was allocated to the additional lots, so my lot has much more impervious surface available than the watershed area I am in.
Yeah... should have been clearer. Was referring to the decking. There's usually a substantial amount around an in-ground pool.
__________________
When in doubt, check it out: FAQ
They can take impervious surface from one lot and add it to another.
So, if you're in a neighborhood with one builder or a group working together, they can look at all the other houses they have in process and figure out where to find some extra impervious space.
Devious, eh?
They get the certificate of occupancy, you close on the house, and you find out later that despite your yard not having a huge, brick patio out back, YOU cannot get a permit to add one because if you do, your neighborhood will be over the limit.
Crafty, I say. Crafty.
Not sure about screened porches. I was thinking it applied to anything with a roof on it or anything like brick or concrete that covers the ground. Or, say.. pools.
Of course, if you are building without a permit and your HOA approves it, so long as nobody from the city/town ever questions your patio.... you're fine.
That's ridiculous! Thanks for that info. I thought it was by lot. So in other words, when a builder or group of builders have a development, they can offer those 5000+ square feet monsters and then have smaller floor plans also to choose from. But the bigger house can also have a screened porch, patios, more sidewalks as well by "using" someone's other lot's impervious surface?
So this explains how some houses have the community sidewalk which is concrete and obviously impervious surface, still have patios and other structures. It seems like these houses have hardly any grass on them!
Never heard of Impervious surface rules before - will definitely add it to my list of things to find out about when buying a house.
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