In August 2019, the Street Use division of the Seattle Department of Transportation is sending the Seattle City Council a legislative proposal to update their citation penalties. Since the citation section was first adopted in 2002, Street Use has made minor updates, but they have not carried out a holistic review of penalties.
What is going to happen?
Street Use is adjusting their citation penalty amounts and creating a new citation penalty schedule for violations of the Street and Sidewalk Use Code (Seattle Municipal Code Title 15). Citation penalties will be based on the type of right-of-way use and the adjacent zoning to ensure that the fees encourage compliance, but do not disproportionately affect individuals and small business owners. Additionally, the penalty amounts will be adjusted annually with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Who will be affected by these changes?
Only those that work without a permit or outside the terms and conditions of their permit will be affected. Citation penalties will decrease for certain permitted activities (such as vending, sidewalk cafés, block parties, urban forestry, and building maintenance), while penalties will increase for utility permit and code violations. There is no change to penalties for construction permit and code violations in single family zones, while penalties will increase in all other zones.
The proposed changes are outlined in the table below:
Permit Type | Single-Family Zones | All Other Zones |
Public Space Management
Vending Maintenance
|
Action: Reduce citation fees in all zones of the city
Proposed: $250 /$500/$1,000 (for first/second/third violation)
|
|
Utility | Action: Increase citation fees in all zones of the city
Proposed: $1,000/$2,000/$4,000 (for first/second/third violation)
|
|
Construction | Action: Maintain citation fees in SF zones
Proposed: $250 /$500/$1,000 (for first/second/third violation)
|
Action: Increase citation fees in all other zones
Proposed: $1,000/$2,000/$4,000 (for first/second/third violation)
|
Why are these changes being proposed?
Street Use’s goals with this proposed legislation are to:
- Make their citation penalties more equitable
- Create an escalation scale prior to issuing a stop work order
- Simplify the penalty sections of the Street Use code
Currently, the citation penalty is now lower than the cost of obtaining a typical permit to use the right-of-way for construction or utility work. This means that there is little incentive to obtain a permit. Additionally, citation fees are the same in all parts of the city, and do not account for the higher and lower impact activities in the right-of-way. To help minimize disproportionate impacts on small and minority-owned businesses, we will be lowering penalty amounts for some permit types.
When will this take effect?
Street Use hopes to adopt the new fees in early October.
Comments?
If you have any comments about these proposed changes, please e-mail publicspace@seattle.gov.