The grading permit (available on the Building & Safety website, see: "Property Activity Report" under "Online Services") outlines the extent of the earth moving for the controversial 16-lot subdivision:
Remove & Recompact : 30,000 cubic yards (of earth)
Cut: 13,306 cubic yards
Fill: 2,789 cubic yards
Export: 7,500 cubic yards
For perspective, Menlo Property developers estimate exporting 63,500 cubic yards of earth. In other words, almost the entire slope between the giant retaining wall north of Riverside & Fletcher to the Riverglen Apartments on Riverside Drive.
Semi Tropic developers will be removing and recompacting almost half that amount of earth to stabilize the slope over the next 8 months.
So far, it looks like they're just removing the tree stumps of the 3 acres worth of urban forest they chopped down last month.
The earth has been pretty wet this week due to the high water table on the slope and all the recent rain. We hope they will employ more than twice a day wetting to control Particulate Matter and "fugitive dust."
