"Our building official says our retaining wall can be no higher than three feet and he wants us to get to 850 or below more quickly, although he hasn't defined for us exactly how quickly is necessary to meet the ordinance." Do you live in a community where other retaining walls are greater than 3 feet? I would explore under what conditions they are permissible. Usually, retaining walls greater than 3' need to be designed by a civil engineer. Since tolerances are tight,I would ask to be pointed to the specific code that specifies "how quickly" you must reach existing grade, so that there is no mystery and you know exactly what you're working. Sometimes, information "translated" by someone, even if they properly understand it, can be misinterpreted along the line. There is incentive to have the lowest retaining wall possible in that it will cost less and be less likely to have future problems.

Thanks @Yardvaark. The relevant ordinance states "Where property is developed adjacent to existing properties previously developed, existing grades of adjacent properties shall have

priority. Grades around houses or structures shall meet existing grades in the shortest

possible distance, as determined by the Building Official, but under no circumstances

shall exceed 1:4 slopes or twenty-five percent (25%) grades." I have not seen any retaining walls in our community higher than three feet, though they may exist. However, the building official specifically told us that ours cannot be more than three feet because of the existing grades of adjacent properties. One option we are exploring is whether we can lower the entire house (we haven't broken ground yet). The street elevation is 850 and currently the house is set to be at 854.6. We just don't want to lower it too much.

As stated, the ordinance seems to be referring to meeting neighboring grade with slope, in the absence of retaining walls, as it doesn't address them there.

When tight tolerances are necessary, then every inch starts to matter. With the finish floor elevation (I presume) at 4 1/2' above street, it does seem that you could squeeze some elevation out of the house. I would explore the maximum that this could be reduced. If your front yard is not humongous, this may be possible.

Flipping the pool, with the spa at the other end may gain a few more inches of leeway.

Here is an updated design and I would love to get feedback. The designer tried to basically keep the same design but add landings to get down 4.5’ to grade. My worry is that there are too many stairs in too many places, and thinking as we get older (I’m closing in on 50) and having a few drinks around the pool, it just seems like it’s asking for an accident. I’m just not sure what other options exist for us, other than adding 8-9 stairs right out of the house. The builder said a walk-out basement isn’t possible, but a daylight basement might be but I don’t think that really solves anything. I also don’t love the stairs on the back left coming out of the garage. I’m still hoping there is a way to move the hot tub closer to the house and have a spillover into the pool, or maybe inset the hot tub into the pool, but still not sure that addresses the grade issues. Anyone have any creative suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Sorry, I meant the stairs to the right of the pergola are the ones that I don’t like. Couldn’t find a way to edit my post.

Thanks @Yardvaark. Good call on the handrails.

@Joe S. What I see in the first drawing are the steps in either corner to enter and exit the pool. In the second drawing, with all of the steps coming out of the house, there are no steps for entering and exiting the pool. Are you planning for a drop in and climb out pool or access from the tanning ledge? If you add steps to the interior of the now shortened pool, how much of the pool real estate will that take up?

@llcp93 I'm not sure why the stairs in the pool were removed, but it's possible it was because the pool became a little shorter. We also had some sitting shelves on the far side of the pool. We are still considering this option, but I really don't like it mostly because we can't have bar stools all the way around the firebar, which makes the TV useless and really reduces seating. Right now we're toying with an elevated patio area with steps that come down to the pool area. I'm hoping to have a new image this week to share and will check on the pool stairs.

@Joe S. Since you are likely going with a pergola over your outdoor kitchen instead of roofed, a product you might be interested in, if you're allowed, is Polygal or Progal. We just added a 14' pergola onto our back porch to match the one over our grill island out by the pool and now after several weeks, are considering this over the porch pergola. It is a product the install company we used uses.