Agenda - Council - 07/27/1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

June 27, 1999 Orrin Thompson Homes Attn: Morgan S. Bickel 842t Wayzata Boulevard Suite 300 Golden Valley, MN 55426 Dear Mr. Bickel: This letter is in response to your letter of June 16, 1999, in which you proposed a plan for rear yard grading corrections for lot 9 block I of the River Pines subdivision. We appreciate your attempt to correct the serious problems created by the placement of the lowest floor of this house about two feet below the original approved survey for lot 9. All three of your suggestions have some merit but fall short of providing us with both long term and low risk solution to the problem in the backyard. We also need to bring to your attention that the placement of the lowest level of the house two feet below the original grade caused the first floor to be two feet below the approved grade in the front yard. This error causes water from lot 9 and from lots 8 and 10 to drain to the front foundation of our house. Because of these serious problems we propose.the following actions to be taken by Orrin Thompson Homes to improve the situation: 1) Orrin Thompson Homes will install gutters on the rear and front of the house. 2) Orrin Thompson Homes will grade lot 9 and cover entire yard with 4 inches of black soil and then install premium quality sod to the entire yard. 3) Orrin Thompson Homes will grade lot 9 (front, sides, and back) to insure that the ground around house is sloped at 6 inches per 10 feet away from the foundation for proper drainage. 4) Since your proposed plan for the retaining wall does not fit our plans for lot 9 and does not provide a comprehensive solution to the drainage problem. We propose the following: Orrin Thompson Homes will hire a certified landscape architect, (with our approval) to determine the feasibility of using a five dry stone retaining wall system to solve the water drainage problem. If the approach appears feasible the architect will develop a detailed construction plan for the retaining wall system. Four of the retaining walls will be used to stabilize the soil on the north and south side of the house, and to direct the water away from the patio area in the backyard. The fifth retaining wall will originate at the southwest corner of the house and extend along the westside of the patio ending at the northwest corner of the house. This may allow the rear yard beyond the retaining wall to be graded to the elevations approved on the original grading plan. 5) Orrin Thompson Homes will pay for the development of the plan for the retaining wall system and for the construction of the five retaining walls as designed by the landscape architect. 6) Orrin Thompson Homes must gain approval for the retaining wall system by the City of Ramsey prior to construction. I hope we can meet with you very soon to take the next step in developing a long-term solution to this very serious problem. I will call you in the next few days to set up a meeting with you and Steve Jankowski at our ho[tse. Sincer,~ Ryan//~ys~ ~ ~ Cc: Steve Jankowski William Pritchard