If broadband planning isn’t already a key part of your multi-dwelling-unit (MDU) building design and investment planning, Seattle’s Office of Cable Communications says it’s a good time to make it a top priority. Your MDU broadband infrastructure decisions impact the fastest growing segment of residents. In Seattle, the number of residents living in MDUs now exceeds those living in single-family homes. And permitting records show nearly 81 percent of Seattle’s new housing builds are MDUs. MDU residents want access to abundant, high-speed internet and they rate it as the top amenity when considering a place to live – outranking an in-unit washer and dryer.
Updated Contractor Disclosure Form
State law requires local building departments, such as SDCI, to verify contractor licenses on every construction permit. Every construction applicant must identify the project contractor license or indicate why the application is exempt from requiring a contractor. To make this easier, we have updated our Contractor Disclosure Form.
URM Retrofit Funding Report
On May 23, SDCI, along with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), released the National Development Council’s (NDC) report to the City of Seattle, Funding URM Retrofits.
Publication Updates
We released a new Tip and a new Director’s Rule, and we updated several Tips.
Increased Oversight of Vacant Buildings
New processes for inspection of vacant buildings took effect on June 1, 2019. The changes add a wider range of properties to the City’s Vacant Building Monitoring program, including all properties with active development proposals containing a vacant building. The frequency of inspections increased from once a quarter to once a month. We estimate that this will add approximately 1,200 new properties to the program this year and can reduce the risk of vacant buildings becoming a blight on the community. In the past, SDCI monitored around 100 properties each year with consistent vacant building violations.
New Vacant Building Monitoring Rules
New rules for vacant building monitoring take effect on June 1, 2019. The goal of the revised monitoring program is to help prevent the neighborhood blight commonly associated with vacant buildings.
Council Approves New Electric Vehicle Readiness Rules for Parking
On April 29, the City Council voted to adopt legislation to add new requirements for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in new off-street parking spaces. The legislation will now be sent to the Mayor for a signature.
New Online Training Available – Enroll Now!
Everyone deserves to live and work in safe buildings. SDCI staff have been involved in the creation of a first-in-the-nation program designed to provide in-depth training tailored to prepare individuals for jobs in Washington State building departments. This three-year program awards a certificate upon satisfactory completion of each three quarters (one class per quarter) for a total of three certificates.
New Tree Rules for Single-Family Zones
On April 19, new rules went into effect for tree planting and protection requirements in single-family zones. The recently passed Mandatory Housing Affordability Ordinance 125791 made several important changes to tree protection requirements in the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) 25.11, Tree Protection, and SMC 23.44, Single Family Zone.
An Easier Way to Filter Your Projects
SDCI has updated the filters for project status in the Seattle Services Portal. Our new options help customers more easily filter a long list of records to find all projects with a specific status. Previously, there were only a handful of statuses to select from. We have more than doubled the number of record statuses that customers can use to filter projects. We made this update to respond to customer feedback.
