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2023 Fee Changes

Seattle skyline at night.

Copyright Tim Durkan

The Seattle City Council recently adopted the 2023 budget, including legislation that implements SDCI fee changes in 2023.

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. This fee will be in addition to the annual inflationary increases, and is meant to support SDCI’s process improvement and technology efforts.

SDCI will also be implementing cuts to administrative electrical, refrigeration and mechanical equipment fees for furnaces in 2023, as industry changes and process efficiencies have warranted a decrease in fee levels for these business lines.

New Director’s Rules, the BVD table and other fee-related information will be available on our website by the end of January.