Dear Community Partners: Tuesday, Mayor Bruce Harrell released the 2026 Proposed Budget. In this budget, Mayor Harrell is continuing investments and bold actions to address the needs of our communities and advance our One Seattle priorities. Mayor Harrell’s balanced budget proposal remains focused on strengthening public safety, creating housing affordability… [ Keep reading ]
Based on recent discussions with architects and consultation with the International Code Council, SDCI has withdrawn two Construction Code Interpretations relating to Fire Wall Horizontal Continuity. (706.5: Fire Wall Horizontal Continuity and 706.5: Fire Wall Horizontal Continuity at Offsets). Our technical code team will be working on developing amendments to… [ Keep reading ]
House Bill 1810, to identify and incentivize earthquake retrofits of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings, has been introduced to the Appropriations Committee for consideration. Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings, classic red brick buildings of common construction prior to World War II, are at risk of collapse in an earthquake due to their… [ Keep reading ]
During the permitting process, we often see recurring mistakes in applications such as Incorrect addresses across an application, incomplete information on plans, and missing permits from other city departments. To help you avoid errors that could require you to resubmit application information or wait through several permitting cycles, we have published… [ Keep reading ]
We have officially recognized the first Unreinforced Masonry (URM) building to demonstrate compliance with the new seismic regulation in the City’s updated URM database. Congratulations to the Poll Building, 110 Union Street, and the teams of architects, engineers, and construction crews that completed life-saving earthquake upgrades to this character building…. [ Keep reading ]
The Seattle City Council recently adopted the 2025 budget, including legislation that implements SDCI fee changes in 2025. On January 1, 2025, SDCI implemented an inflationary increase of 6.5% to most fees. These fee increases changed SDCI’s base hourly rate to $274 per hour, and changed the Land Use hourly… [ Keep reading ]
City Council recently adopted legislation to enact a temporary exemption from Design Review. Until November 2, 2027, as part of the Downtown Activation Plan, projects that include any research and development laboratory uses or that are developing at least half of the project with residential or lodging uses are exempt… [ Keep reading ]
Save the Date: Stormwater Code and Manual Update Listening Session
In preparation for the next Stormwater Code & Manual we are holding a virtual listening session for the development, building and design community. As one of the groups that uses these rules, we want to hear from you how we can improve the Stormwater Code & Manual so that there… [ Keep reading ]