Yes, most likely. In Tehama County, moving more than 250 cubic yards of earth needs a grading permit, and so does grading within 250 feet of a watercourse or cutting a road, building pad, or septic site that changes the natural contour of the land. The permit comes from Tehama County Public Works, and small jobs can still land in the permit range faster than most people expect.
That number surprises property owners. Two hundred fifty cubic yards sounds like a lot until you do the math. A house pad plus a 300-foot driveway with a turnaround can cross it before anyone has poured anything.
What counts as grading in Tehama County?
The county defines grading broadly. It isn't only bulldozing a hillside. Per the county's ordinance language, grading means any of these:
- Moving more than 250 cubic yards of earth material
- Working within 250 feet of a pre-existing watercourse, at any volume
- Making a road, including a temporary access road, a building pad, a mobile home pad, a well drilling pad, or a new sewage disposal system that changes the natural contour of the land
- Disturbing 10,000 square feet or more of surface area
Read that list again, because the second and third items catch people. A small pad near a seasonal creek needs a permit even if you're only moving a few dozen yards. A driveway to a new build needs one because it's a road, not because of the volume.
For scale, a standard dump truck carries roughly 10 to 14 cubic yards. Two hundred fifty yards is somewhere around 18 to 25 truckloads. That's one long week of hauling on a lot with a real cut and fill.
How the county sorts permits: ministerial and discretionary
Tehama County splits grading permits into two types, and the type decides how long you'll wait.
| Situation | Permit type | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Under 250 cubic yards, less than 10,000 sq. ft. | Ministerial | Staff review the application against the standards. No public hearing. |
| 251 to 1,999 cubic yards | Ministerial, with a deposit and hourly review | Same path, but the county bills engineering review time. |
| More than 2,000 cubic yards, more than five acres disturbed, or within 250 feet of a watercourse | Discretionary | Fuller review. Plan for more time and more paperwork. |
The current fee schedule and the application form are on the Tehama County Public Works grading permits page. Fees change, so check there instead of trusting a number in a blog post, including this one.
You submit by email or through the county's online form. Public Works is in Gerber, and their phone is (530) 385-1462. Call before you finish your plans, not after. A five-minute conversation about your parcel can save you a resubmittal.
Does a building permit cover the grading?
Not automatically. This trips up owners and even some general contractors. A building permit for the house and a grading permit for the pad are separate approvals, so check where each one stands.
If you're building a new home, the sequence usually runs pad first, then footings. That means the grading approval needs to be in hand before the framers ever get a date on the calendar. Our house pad and driveway work follows that order, so permit status is worth raising early.
What about Butte and Shasta counties?
The rules change at the county line, and that matters if your parcel sits near Chico or Redding.
Shasta County uses the same 250 cubic yard starting point, and its code treats residential building pads and driveways as ministerial. Major project permits kick in above 2,000 cubic yards or five acres of disturbance.
Butte County has historically been much stricter. Local reporting on the county ordinance has put the trigger at 50 cubic yards, with a discretionary permit above 1,000 cubic yards. Ordinances get amended, so treat that as a warning to call Butte County Public Works before you assume a small job is exempt.
The same dirt pile can be legal to move in Tehama County and illegal one parcel over. Confirm with the county where the parcel sits. City limits (Corning, Red Bluff, Chico, Redding) can have their own grading rules on top of the county's.
What happens if you skip the permit?
Grading without a permit where one is required is a code violation. The usual outcome is a stop-work notice, and sometimes a requirement to bring the finished grade up to standard after the fact. That can mean tearing out compacted fill so an inspector can see what's under it.
Fixing it after the fact costs more than the permit would have. It also becomes a problem at sale time, because unpermitted grading and a septic system that doesn't match the approved plan are the sort of thing a buyer's inspector finds.
Why timing matters more than the fee
The paperwork isn't usually what hurts. The calendar is.
Northern California grading has a season. The valley floor around Corning and Red Bluff can turn to soup after the first real rains, generally sometime between late October and December, and once clay soil is wet you can't compact it to spec. Fill placed wet and rolled anyway is how you get a slab that cracks two winters later.
Here's the trade-off. If you file in October for a job that needs a discretionary review, you may not get approved until the ground is already too wet to work. In that case we'd rather you wait for spring than push a pad through in January. A pad built right in April beats a rushed one in December every time.
Bare ground is also a stormwater problem. Any project that disturbs one acre or more generally falls under the State Water Board's construction stormwater program, which brings its own plan and erosion control obligations. You can read the basics at the State Water Resources Control Board construction stormwater page. Under that acre, the county's grading and erosion control standards still apply.
What to gather before you apply
You don't need a finished set of engineered plans for every project, but you do need enough to show the county what you're doing. Pull together:
- The parcel number and a site sketch showing where the work happens
- A rough estimate of cut and fill volumes
- Distances to any creek, drainage, or seasonal watercourse
- The location of the septic system and well, if any exist
- Your plan for keeping loose soil from washing off site
If you can't estimate volumes, a contractor who does this work every week usually can, and that's a fair thing to ask for during a free estimate. Request a free estimate and tell us the parcel and what you're building.
Common Questions
How many cubic yards can you move without a permit in Tehama County?
You can move up to 250 cubic yards without a grading permit, as long as the work isn't within 250 feet of a watercourse, isn't a road, pad, or new sewage disposal system that changes the natural contour, and disturbs less than 10,000 square feet. Cross any one of those lines and a permit is required. Confirm with Tehama County Public Works before you start.
Do I need a grading permit for a driveway in California?
Usually yes, if the driveway is cut through a slope, crosses a drainage, or involves enough fill to meet your county's volume threshold. In Tehama County a new road is a permit trigger by itself. A driveway that connects to a county road may also need a separate encroachment permit, so ask about both.
Who pulls the grading permit, the owner or the contractor?
Either can, depending on the county's rules and your contract. Settle it in writing before work starts. The person whose name is on the permit is responsible for meeting its conditions, so it's worth knowing who that is.
Can I grade my land before the rainy season without a permit?
Only if the job stays under every trigger. The rainy season has no effect on the permit rules. It does change how quickly you can get the work done, so start the permit conversation in summer or early fall for anything you want built before winter.
Do I need a permit to fix an existing pad or driveway?
Often not for routine maintenance, like adding gravel or regrading a washout to its original shape. New cuts, new fill, or changing drainage patterns can bring the permit rules back into play. When in doubt, call the county with your parcel number.
The bottom line
If your project involves a new pad, a new road, a septic site, or more than 250 cubic yards of dirt in Tehama County, plan on a grading permit and treat it as step one, not a formality. Call Public Works before you finalize a schedule, and don't let anyone start moving soil on a handshake.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on scope and volumes, Walberg, Inc. has been owner-operated in Corning since 1999 and works grading jobs across Tehama, Butte, and Shasta counties. See our grading services, look at past projects, or request a free estimate. Start now, because the dry weeks left before winter go fast.