Thank you to everybody who attended our Seattle Home Fair sessions in January and February. We were happy that so many of you were able to join us. If you missed the Seattle Home Fairs, or want to watch a different session, the recordings, presentations, and resources are now available on our Seattle Home Fairs webpage.
New Smoke Control Acceptance Test Form
SDCI is excited to announce the upcoming release of the new Smoke Control Acceptance test form. This form will be a required item for final on all projects with Smoke Control systems that don’t have a requirement for a Special Inspector for Smoke Control assigned to them. The new form will replace all existing “white papers” and will provide consistency and reliability to our customers. The form will be available on the SDCI Forms page on March 15. This form will be required for all systems tested on or after April 1, 2023.
Reminder: SDCI to Resume Cancelling Applications Older than 24 Months
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 If an application is not issued within 24 months, it has the potential of becoming out of date with updated life safety codes, energy requirements, land use regulations, etc.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.
February Publication Updates
In February, SDCI updated three Tips on Mandatory Housing Affordability, factory-assembled structures, and build-over approval process.
Building Momentum to Fix the Bricks: Working Groups Established to Support Mandatory Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Ordinance
The City of Seattle is moving forward with the process to require the earthquake retrofit of its 1100 unreinforced masonry buildings (URMs) which are prone to collapse in an earthquake. In 2021, City Council passed Resolution 32033 declaring the intent to develop a mandatory earthquake retrofit ordinance with a resource program to support URM building owners and tenants.
On January 12, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), in partnership with the Alliance for Safety, Affordability, and Preservation (ASAP!), hosted a meeting to discuss the timeline and next steps needed to be successful in ordinance adoption.
SDCI to Resume Cancelling Applications Older than 24 Months
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
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
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!
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
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.
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