Building Connections Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections

Building Connections

Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections news and events

SDCI to Resume Cancelling Applications Older than 24 Months

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SDCI standard process is to cancel permit applications that are more than 24 months old to ensure projects are meeting current standards. When an applicant submits an application, they are locked into (“vested to”) the codes current at that time. If an application is not issued within 24 months, it has the potential of becoming out of date with updated life safety codes, energy requirements, land use regulations, etc. It is important that applications are issued in a timely manner so that the projects are built to modern codes.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayor issued an emergency order that resulted in SDCI suspending its process of cancelling applications older than 24 months. That emergency order ended in October 2022. SDCI will now resume cancelling old applications. SDCI will send notifications to affected applicants in the coming months outlining the timeframe in which permits must be obtained or be subject to application cancellation.

SEPA Parking Amendments Effective January 20, 2023

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On January 20, 2023, the state proposed SEPA related amendments removed parking as an element of the environment and revised the environmental checklist.  As a result of new state law, SDCI will no longer identify and analyze parking impacts in its SEPA analysis.  A new Environmental (SEPA) checklist is available on the City forms page and required with submittal of a Master Use Permit for project proposals that require SEPA. 

2023 Fee Changes

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On January 1, 2023, SDCI will be implementing a compounded inflationary increase of 9.16% to most fees. This increase follows two consecutive years in which SDCI did not implement fee increases, and is designed to re-align SDCI fee levels with the current cost of business. These fee increases will result in an SDCI base hourly rate of $252/hr, and Land Use hourly rate of $430/hr. New for 2023, most SDCI fees will also be subject to a 5% technology fee.

New Webpage Focusing on Permit History & Site Research Now Available!

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Finding permit history and property information often requires consulting multiple resources. Many excellent sources of data and documents are already available to you online on the SDCI Resources page and on other websites. To help you better navigate the range of available research tools, we have created a new webpage to centralize these resources. The page includes a description of what each resource offers so that you can understand what data is available, and so you can focus your site and permit history research on the best options.

Updated Earthquake Home Retrofit Plan Set

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The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) has updated the prescriptive earthquake home retrofit plan set! We are now using an updated drawing plan set that has been approved by the Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO) and uploaded to our website. The same plan set is already being used in several local jurisdictions, including Auburn, Bellevue, and King County. Visit WABO’s website for more home retrofit resources.

Don’t Miss Our Hybrid Seattle Home Fair this January and February!

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Once again, SDCI will be hosting our popular Seattle Home Fair! Six virtual lectures will be held in January and February leading up to an in-person event at the Filipino Community Center on February 25, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

These free events will be jam-packed with useful information about rental housing rules, our permitting and inspection process, emergency preparedness, and much more. With something for everyone, you won’t want to miss these events!

Closed Captioning and Translation Comes to SDCI’s Public Meetings

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The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections is excited to announce we are adding closed captioning and translation to most online public meetings. Beginning in January 2023, our virtual Design Review Board meetings and land use public meetings will include closed captioning and will offer automatic translation into the languages spoken most often in our communities. SDCI will also offer these services for other online public events.

Reminder: Plan Review Response/Reply Process Refresher

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In early 2022, SDCI transitioned to providing plan reviews via plan mark-up instead of traditional letters. This article is a refresher on the process for applicants responding to review comments.

The primary change that we are asking of applicants is that they document responses to comments directly in the plan set provided to them by SDCI at the end of each review cycle instead of sending response letters corresponding to each correction letter. (Note: You will still receive correction summaries from individual reviews as they are completed.) When all responses are documented, we ask that applicants upload the response plan set (as document type “Correction Response Plan Set” or “Correction Response Plan Set – Land Use”) along with the new plan set as (document type “Plan Set” or “Plan Set – Land Use”) for the next review cycle. We have a helpful video to help you learn how to navigate the new process.

SDOT Survey: Share Your Thoughts on Permitting Customer Support!

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At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) closed their permit counters to the public. Since then, we began providing online options for applicants to engage with our teams, but we know there are opportunities for improvement! With new public health guidance, we are making plans to offer in-person services again and we’d like to hear from you.

New Code Interpretation for Fire Wall Continuity at Offsets

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Fire walls are the most robust form of fire-rated assemblies in the Building Code and have strict rules for their construction and continuity. In Seattle, fire walls are being used more frequently for a variety of reasons, including: Fire walls are required for compartmentalization when building 6 stories of wood construction using the Seattle amendment to promote more affordable housing (SBC 510.10); and Fire walls are used to subdivide a building into separate “buildings,” either to change the occupancy designation or to separate new construction from existing.