If the city has told you your project needs a grading permit, what they’re really asking for is a grading plan: a stamped engineering drawing that shows existing and proposed grades, drainage, and erosion control in the format their plan check staff can approve. Calichi Design Group prepares permit-ready grading and drainage plans for developers, general contractors, architects, and property owners across the Bay Area and beyond. Every plan is prepared under the responsible charge of a licensed California PE, and every proposal is fixed-fee, returned within five business days.
We’ve delivered site civil engineering on 400+ projects since 2009, from single-parcel commercial pads to K-12 campuses and multi-acre residential developments. Grading design isn’t a side service we bolt on. It’s the core of the civil package, and it’s the sheet plan check reads first.
What’s in the Grading Plan Package
A grading plan that gets approved is more than contours on a sheet. Depending on the jurisdiction and the site, the package we prepare includes:
- Grading and drainage plan: existing and proposed contours, spot elevations, pad and finish floor elevations, slopes, swales, and storm drainage layout.
- Earthwork quantities: cut and fill volumes, balanced where the site allows so the contractor isn’t importing or exporting material unnecessarily.
- Sections and details: slope transitions, retaining conditions, drainage structures, and interfaces with adjacent property.
- Erosion and sediment control plan: the construction-phase BMP sheet most jurisdictions require with the grading permit, scaled to the project’s disturbance area.
- Drainage report or drainage calculations where the reviewing agency requires them, prepared in-house by the same engineer who designed the grading.
- Stormwater compliance documents: the C.3 Stormwater Control Plan or SWPPP when the project’s impervious area or disturbed area triggers them. See our stormwater management page for how those thresholds work.
Because one team prepares all of it, the grading plan, the drainage design, and the stormwater facilities actually agree with each other. That’s the difference between a submittal that closes in one or two plan check rounds and one that keeps generating new comments.
Grading Plans for Permit and Plan Check
Most Bay Area cities and counties regulate grading under their municipal code and the California Building Code’s grading provisions, with local amendments that set when a permit is required and what the plans must show. The permit threshold varies by jurisdiction: some cities trigger on a few dozen cubic yards of earthwork, others on cut or fill depth, drainage alterations, or hillside overlay zones. Our guide to grading permit thresholds covers the common triggers, and building permit vs. grading permit explains how the two tracks interact.
When a jurisdiction requires engineered grading, it requires the plan to be prepared and stamped by a licensed civil engineer. That’s the search that usually brings people to this page: the city said you need a grading plan for your permit, and now you’re looking for a grading plan engineer who does this routinely, in your jurisdiction’s format, without an open-ended hourly bill.
Our process is built around plan check. We confirm the jurisdiction’s submittal requirements before we draw, we prepare the plans to their checklist, and when the comment letter comes back we respond to it directly, revise the sheets, and carry the package through to permit issuance. Plan check response is part of the scope, not a change order.
Who Hires Us for Grading Plans
- Developers and property owners who need a grading permit as part of a site development or building permit package.
- General contractors who’ve been handed a permit condition that requires an engineered grading plan before work can start.
- Architects who need a civil engineer to carry the site work on a project they’re leading.
- School districts and institutions whose projects run through the Division of the State Architect, where the civil drawings are reviewed against DSA’s completeness requirements.
Project types run from commercial pads, parking lots, and industrial yards to multifamily infill, hillside residential sites, and campus work. If the site slopes, drains, or gets paved, we’ve graded something like it.
Fees and Turnaround
Send us the address and scope and we’ll return a fixed-fee proposal within five business days. No proposal fee, no open-ended hourly billing. The fee covers the deliverables named in the scope, including plan check response, so you know the civil engineering cost before you commit. For how we structure fees generally, see our civil engineering fee structure.
Schedule depends on the site and the jurisdiction, and we’ll give you a realistic delivery date in the proposal rather than a number we can’t hit. Survey and geotechnical inputs, where the project needs them, are the usual schedule drivers, and we’ll tell you up front whether you need them.
Frequently Asked Questions: Grading Plans
Do I need a civil engineer to prepare my grading plan?
If the jurisdiction classifies your project as engineered grading, yes: the plan must be prepared and stamped by a licensed civil engineer. Smaller projects sometimes qualify for regular or minor grading provisions with lighter requirements. The threshold is set by each city or county’s grading ordinance, and it’s one of the first things we confirm. If your project genuinely doesn’t need an engineered plan, we’ll tell you that instead of selling you one.
What does the city look for in grading plan check?
Reviewers check that grades and drainage work: positive drainage away from structures, slopes within code limits, drainage that doesn’t burden adjacent property, erosion control during construction, and consistency between the grading plan, the drainage calculations, and the stormwater compliance documents. Internally consistent packages are exactly what one-team preparation is for, and it’s why our submittals tend to close in fewer rounds.
How fast can you prepare a grading plan for a permit?
The proposal comes back within five business days, and it states the delivery schedule for the plans themselves. Actual duration depends on site complexity and on whether survey and geotechnical work already exist. When the inputs are in hand, straightforward sites move quickly; we’d rather commit to a date in writing than quote a generic timeline here.
Is a grading plan the same as a drainage plan?
They’re distinct sheets that have to agree. The grading plan sets the ground surface; the drainage plan routes the water that surface produces. Many jurisdictions review them as one grading and drainage package, which is how we prepare them. If you’ve been asked for both, that’s one scope for us, not two.
What if I’m not sure my project needs a grading permit at all?
Start with our guide on whether your project needs a grading permit, or just send us the address and what you’re planning. We’ll check the jurisdiction’s thresholds and tell you what applies. If you want the background on what these plans contain, our article on what a grading plan is covers it in plain terms.
Start Your Grading Plan
Share the address, what you’re building, and any survey or geotechnical documents you already have. We’ll return a fixed-fee proposal within five business days from a licensed California civil engineer who’s delivered 400+ projects. Contact Calichi Design Group to get started, or call (510) 250-7877.