Ok so what are the black lines, the 008 and the 009, and the yellow straight lines? I guess my real question is where is your property line? Road? Water?

Jen

Hello - the road is barely visible in the screenshot to the upper left. We're on a cul-de-sac.

The numbers (18-008) are the lot numbers.

The black lines are temporary fencing (?) that has been there for a few years before we got it, not sure what the purpose of it is, but we can mow and grade the land there.

The blue numbers are the measurements of the lot outlines in feet.

My lot is the one with the blue flag in the middle,

Can you upload a topography map of the entire morain? It would help to see how the hill is situated overall.

We are finishing a house on a moraine in Iowa that also borders conservation land.

Where are you planning to put the house? Do you want to incorporate the view beyond the hill in your plan?

Do you have to "do" anything with the hill? It looks like there are a few trees at the bottom - next to the wetlands? (I assume that's what the color/texture change is, in the lower right?) You probably don't want to plant grass and mow the whole thing.

I love trees, and I would probably with with my local county extension service to get appropriate trees or bushes for the hill, as well as the rest of the property. I can't bear to be without trees.

If the view over the wetlands is pretty, I'd build a structure of some kind - deck or screened gazebo, depending on the mosquito situation. I'd either put it near the top of the hill, or partway down, to provide privacy from your house and others.

Hope this helps. Will be uploading one more, it zooms out a bit further though and only shows the 10-ft contour. Black square is nothing, just covering a street name. Tinypic link lets you see a larger version.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Here's another one a bit further out. Sorry for the different maps, trying to pick what is easiest to see everything. tinypic link takes you to a larger version.

Here is a link that might be useful:

"Where are you planning to put the house? Do you want to incorporate the view beyond the hill in your plan?"

The house will be in the empty area near the street and end by the first black fence line. We do want the view beyond the hill. We will be able to see it from the house, just want to maximize our yard and eliminate some of the steepness if possible.

"Do you have to "do" anything with the hill? It looks like there are a few trees at the bottom - next to the wetlands? (I assume that's what the color/texture change is, in the lower right?) You probably don't want to plant grass and mow the whole thing."

Right now the land is pretty wild with lots of dirt and wild plants that get really tall in the summer. The wetland plants do not start until behind the trees, so the whole yard will be grass.

"I love trees, and I would probably with with my local county extension service to get appropriate trees or bushes for the hill, as well as the rest of the property. I can't bear to be without trees."

I'm the same way, once we build we will be looking into that.

"If the view over the wetlands is pretty, I'd build a structure of some kind - deck or screened gazebo, depending on the mosquito situation. I'd either put it near the top of the hill, or partway down, to provide privacy from your house and others."

Yes, beyond the wetland is one 10,000 ft2 house and a forest line, it's a great view.

Pictured is our view. You can't tell but I'm standing at the top of the hill.

Here is a link that might be useful:

It looks like you got the pick of the litter! That's the lot I would have chosen.

My house is on a curved street, so it is 45ð off square (front door faces SW). We're in North Dakota, so like you, we have seasonal extremes. This orientation is fantastic - we get lots of SE and SW sun in the living room and kitchen in the winter, when we need it, but in the summer, when the sun is higher, there is less direct sun. We planted trees fairly near the house, to shade the LR window in the summer.

The bedrooms are on the back of the house. They do get the north wind, but the windows are smaller in the bedrooms and bathrooms than in the living areas.

In your case, you can put the garage on the NW side as a winter wind buffer, and be open to the SE and SW sun. If you set the house back a bit from the road, you'll hardly be able to see your neighbors.

Re: where the house will be placed, it could be right at the black line or just beyond it, depending on if we can slightly level out the hill. Of course I'm really open to anything right now, we're in the very early planning stages.

annkh thanks for the tips! Yes, we are really excited about the way we are facing too. Summer afternoons will be shady in the back yard as the day goes on and the front of the house will be illuminated. Great call on the garage placement for winter.

That is a lovely view, but personally I don't think you're going to be able to see it from the house. You have a couple of problems "if" you want to level the hill. First, if you dig out and level the hill without the neighbors doing the same, all the run-off during a rainstorm will come into your yard. The second issue is the wetlands beyond the hill. Any grading changes you make to the hill will impact the wetlands. Those wetlands exist, in part, because of the hill. You've said that wetlands cannot be touched.

You need to speak to your county or city building department to find out what your options are and if there are any restrictions on moving dirt in that area.

I think rather than looking for ways to eliminate the hill you need to be looking for ways to make the best of it. Perhaps some "steps" up the hill and a lovely little garden or look out spot will work. I could even see placing a children's playset up there once the land is cleared off a bit.

You should be able to make whatever grade changes to your property you want without effecting the wetlands. The only thing you could do to change the wetlands is to dig down 20' and make a pond.

If you want to level off a yard, you basically have 2 choices:
1. flatten out your lot by lowering the elevation of your hilltop and pushing the dirt partially down the slope or

2. bring in fill soil raising the rear of your lot.

I think you'll be able to figure something out with the existing soil. If you don't have a walkout basement, you will be displacing a good deal of soil excavating the basement - that soil can level off more yard for you.

You could also bring down you lot a little pushing the soil back over the hill to expand the hilltop. As long are you leave a slight berm (little hump) at the edges of you lot lines, your neighbors lots won't drain onto your lot.

Just be sure to get a cover crop going right away so that your disturbed soil doesn't erode away.

Our morain hill top was slightly smaller than our house foot print when we started. We brought down the hill by 7-10 feet and used the displaced soil to further expand the top of our hill.

Below is a pic of the topography overlaid on an areal image showing our basement footprint (if you look closely). The lines are 10 foot lines, so it was about 70 feet down to the river when we started (and very steep).

It worked fine, but contractors around here are not used to working with steepness.

If you do some leveling, make sure that your contractor skins off the topsoil separately to put back on top.

Here is the surrounding area for reference. The railroad is our driveway, so from the road back to our hill is our lot (oddly shaped), about 20 acres.

Our excavator made us an access road and leveled the hilltop with no problem.

Definitely check with the local authorities about what you can do with the hill. Where I live, I cannot build or change the land within 200' of wetlands. I can't even cut down a tree without getting conservation commission approval. My understanding was that federal law was 100', though our town bylaw is 200'.

If it was my lot, I would look into building a stepped house into the hillside. With 16' of elevation, you could have a 3rd level on the top of the hill to take advantage of the views.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Lots of helpful information.

I've been reading and researching all morning and it appears we have to leave a 50-ft buffer outside of the wetland. According to their maps, the wetland starts 30 ft out from our lot line. That means we only have 20 feet in the back portion of our lot that cannot be touched. You can actually see the buffer line, it is right where the trees are, or just a few feet in front of them.

Also "abrupt structural measures" (retaining walls) by the buffer area are only approved if there are no other options so that one is probably going to be out, which I'm kind of glad of, I didn't want a 15 ft retaining wall on my property and that was the direction my husband was leaning (with a nice stone fence/wall but that sounds like it would be really interesting to kids).

One question I've had too is where we can mow. We can mow the whole thing. The buffer area can only be mowed at a time that helps battle invasive plants or prevents woody plants from growing.

Obviously, we will be talking to the city about this directly but I like going into legal conversations with some knowledge.