Hillside Development

PDS west specializes in large-scale planned communities, particularly large hillside projects. We work both for private sector developers and for public jurisdictions. We are sensitive to both the public sector’s need to establish review, evaluation and regulatory tools, and the developer’s requirements for a financially viable project.

The engineers with whom we work respect the grading and earthwork capabilities that are an integral part of our hillside designs. Our designs never change significantly due to grading changes requested by the engineer. We take an environmentally sensitive approach to earthwork and grading. That is not to say we do no mass grading - often that is required due to site and environmental constraints. We work in close collaboration with geologists, engineering geologists and soils engineers to assure our hillside design results in a stable, safe, final site. However, we place an equal emphasis on the aesthetics of earthwork; we integrate contour grading, re-vegetation and viewshed analysis to assure that the final landforms are pleasing and that potential negative impacts are mitigated by design.

Robert Lacoss, principal, has personally worked on dozens of extremely steep, difficult sites in the Pacific Northwest, including Canada; in the Southwest; and throughout Southern California. Many of these projects have set standards and milestones for hillside development in those jurisdictions, including the following:

•  Canyon Park Specific Plan - On a steep hillside site within the viewshed of the Antelope Freeway, Mr. Lacoss designed the land plan and preliminary grading, and wrote and processed the first Specific Plan approved through the County of Los Angeles.

•  Kismet Crest - The design and grading of a steep, forested site within the City's viewshed set the standards for hillside development in Eugene, Oregon - as well as for the City's Planned Unit Development ordinance.

•  Hillside Terrace - We site planned the first fully handicap-access public housing project in Tacoma, Washington - on the Housing Authority's steepest site.