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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPCD 2024-06-10 Item 1D - Code Amendments - Related to Recently Passed House Bill 1293 and State Bill 5290City of Tukwila Thomas McLeod, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Planning and Community Development FROM: Nora Gierloff, DCD Director BY: Isaac Gloor, Associate Planner Maxwell Baker, Development Review Supervisor CC: Mayor Thomas McLeod DATE: June 10, 2024 SUBJECT: Permitting Process Improvements ISSUE Amendments to Tukwila Municipal Code Titles 8, 16, 17, 18, and 19 are needed to consolidate and simplify permit procedures and comply with recently passed Washington State legislation SB 5290 and HB 1293. BACKGROUND Tukwila's Permitting Process The City of Tukwila Department of Community Development accepts and reviews applications for land use projects and development. The Tukwila Municipal Code (TMC) distinguishes various permits by type and contains standards for the processing of those permits. Review of land use permits is subject to timelines for various steps, which are broken down below. These timelines are largely dictated by State law. • Notice of Complete / Incomplete Application: o The City of Tukwila must determine whether an applicant has submitted all necessary documents for review, like site plans, building plans, environmental reports, etc. o This step is subject to the following timelines: ■ The Department must determine whether a permit application is complete or incomplete within 28 calendar days of permit submittal. Should the Department fail to provide a determination within that time, the application shall be deemed automatically "Complete" for the purposes of this step. ■ An application is "Incomplete" if the Department determines that the permit submittal doesn't contain all required documents. • The applicant has 90 calendar days from the date of the "Notice of Incomplete Application" to provide required materials. If the applicant fails to do so, the Permit Application will expire. Any refundable fees paid will be returned to the applicant. ■ If the Department determines that the permit submittal is "Complete", the Department shall provide a "Notice of Complete Application" that informs the applicant that formal review of the application will begin. • Notice of Application: o Some permit types require the public to be notified that an application has been submitted. In those cases, the Department has 14 calendar days to issue this 61 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 2 62 "Notice of Application". That notice can be provided via email to all interested parties and agencies with jurisdiction, via mail to nearby property owners and residents, and by a physical sign erected on the subject property. Some permit types require all these notice formats to be utilized. o A "Notice of Application" is accompanied by a comment period. This is a set period in which the Department will accept comments from the public or agencies with jurisdiction regarding the project. During the comment period, the Department will not make a final determination on the project's compliance with Tukwila Municipal Code. This period can range from 14 calendar days to 21 calendar days, depending on the Permit Type. o If the Permit Type requires that the final decision be made in a hearing, this step will also include a "Notice of Hearing". This notice must be provided at least 14 calendar days prior to the hearing. • Permit Review: o The Department must provide a final determination regarding whether a proposal complies with the TMC within 120 calendar days from the date that the applicant was sent a "Notice of Complete Application". o The 120-calendar day countdown runs for the entire time that the Department is reviewing a project. However, that countdown stops whenever the Department determines that the application must be revised to comply with the TMC. At that point, the status of the application is changed to "Corrections Required" and a Correction Letter will be sent to the applicant that details all required submittals. ■ When the status is changed to "Corrections Required", the applicant has 90 calendar days to submit all required materials. If they fail to do so, the application will expire. Tukwila's Zoning code was adopted in 1995 and is approximately 29 years old. Original sections have been built on, expanded, and edited over time. Because of the patchwork nature of Tukwila's code, sections are occasionally repetitive, confusing, refer to nonexistent permits or standards, or conflict with other sections. It has been a goal of the Department of Community Development to simplify and correct the TMC, as well as to bring all the TMC's Titles into alignment with each other. New Legislation 2023 was an active year for State Legislation, with Governor Inslee signed into law many bills affecting Tukwila. Among them were Senate Bill 5290, now called the "Local Project Review Act" (LPRA), and House Bill 1293. These bills mandate sweeping changes to permit reviews for all local governments planning under the Growth Management Act, including Tukwila. They are intended to increase the timeliness and predictability of local review, both of which have large impacts on project costs for development. Changes mandated by these two bills, and relevant to this code update proposal, are summarized below: • SB 5290: New Permit Review Timelines o For projects that do not require public notice, the final decision must be issued within 65 calendar days of the "Notice of Complete Application". o For projects that do require public notice, the final decision must be issued within 100 calendar days of the "Notice of Complete Application". https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/departmentofcommunitydevelopment/DCDPlanning/Code Updates/2024/SB 5290 Edits/PCD Documents/PCD Info Memo - Permitting Process Improvements.docx INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 3 o For project permits which require both notice and a public hearing, the final decision must be issued within 170 calendar days of the "Notice of Complete Application". o If a project permit fails to meet these timelines, in addition to other measures that an applicant may seek, the local jurisdiction would be required to refund up to 20% of an applicant's permit fees. ■ However, local jurisdictions may implement at least 3 of 10 optional measures set forth in SB 5290 that are intended to further speed up permit review timelines. If a jurisdiction enacts these measures, refunds would not need to be provided even if permit timelines are not met. • HB 1293: Limits on Design Review Meetings o Cities may not hold more than a single public meeting for design review projects. This severely limits the utility of public hearing for design review, as the only possible decisions that a Design Review body can make are to approve or deny a proposal. They cannot require corrections, as that would entail another design review meeting. o HB 1293 also requires that design review standards be clear, objective, and be based on an ascertainable guideline or criterion. The intent of this is that an applicant should be able to determine whether a design will meet the review criteria simply by reading the criteria themselves. While this may sound straightforward, as most code is clearly legible for developers, many jurisdiction's design review criteria (including Tukwila's) contain standards that are clearly subjective in nature. This includes standards such as requirements that a project "match the character of the surrounding neighborhood" or that a building "feature a high -quality design". These standards are necessarily reliant on the eye of the beholder, and thus enforcement can differ based on who is the decision maker. The Department is not currently proposing reform to the design review standards. That work will be presented as part of a separate code update package. However, as the limit on the number of public meetings/hearings portion of this bill has implications for the new standards set forth in SB 5290, the Department proposes to implement this aspect of the bill as part of this update. Tukwila must implement the new permitting timeline requirements by December 31 s`, 2024. The requirements of House Bill 1293 must be implemented by mid-2025, or, 6 months after the City adopts its next Comprehensive Plan. DISCUSSION This code update would amend the portions of Titles 8, 16, 17, 18, and 19, that relate to project permitting, permit types, review timelines, appeals, and design review. It would consolidate permit types, establish new permitting timelines, and speed up the review of applications for Design Review by removing the requirement to hold public hearings before the Board of Architectural Review (BAR). It also includes corrections to scrivener's errors, as well as removals of redundant or expired code sections. The proposal would bring the City's codes fully into compliance with the LPRA and would implement a requirement from HB 1293 that correlates well with the rest of the amendments. It https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/departmentofcommunitydevelopment/DCDPlanning/Code Updates/2024/SB 5290 Edits/PCD Documents/PCD Info Memo - Permitting Process Improvements.docx 63 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 4 also would help achieve Department and City goals regarding permit review timelines, particularly relating to the timeliness of Design Review applications. The current City of Tukwila review timelines for most permit types already meet the new statutory requirements, and virtually all permits currently meet the (now superseded) 120-day timeline, as shown below. September 2021 February 2022 February 2023 February 2024 Fire Reviews 28 — 0 Overdue 41 - 1 Overdue 48 — 0 Overdue 23 — 0 Overdue Building Reviews 47 — 9 Overdue 11 - 4 Overdue 3 — 0 Overdue 19 — 0 Overdue Planning Reviews 128 — 95 Overdue 31 - 8 Overdue 38 — 13 Overdue 51 — 0 Overdue Engineering Reviews 178 — 78 Overdue 60 - 8 Overdue 61 — 8 Overdue 65 — 0 Overdue (First number are permits actively Under Review which includes those that are overdue.) However, Design Review projects that require review by the BAR commonly reach or exceed timelines, largely due to the need to schedule a Public Hearing. These hearings occasionally must be scheduled months ahead of time to be accommodated in busy agenda schedules. The Department has a strong interest in accelerating the review of permits that require design review, many of which are related to the development of new housing. A commonly cited barrier to development is timely and predictable procedures within the permitting process. This proposal would amend the portions of Title 18 that relate to design review applications to establish that all design review would be an administrative process. The BAR, whose members consist of the Planning Commission, would continue to serve in their roles and perform all functions of the Commission other than the administration of a public hearing and quasi-judicial review for Design Review permits. Public notice would still be required for Design Review applications, and the City's timeline for approval of a design review permit would be set at 100 calendar days, in accordance with state requirements (as opposed to 170 days for those decisions which require a public hearing). The Design Review standards would not change as part of this proposal; however, all departures from the standards would be reviewed administratively as opposed to at a hearing by the Board of Architectural Review. As part of their implementation strategies, some jurisdictions are considering complying with these new state requirements by changing their review procedures for certain permit types in a way that would increase the permit timelines. This could be accomplished by adding public notice requirements where they currently don't exist, or requiring a public hearing for a permit type when currently it can be reviewed administratively. In this way, a permit timeline could legally be extended from a state requirement of 65 days up to a maximum of 170 days. While these changes would comply with the letter of the law, the Department is not proposing any amendments that would lengthen reviews. These changes are expected to provide greater clarity and predictability for applicants, simplify permit review processes for both applicants and staff, speed up review timelines, and push Tukwila another step towards compliance with new State requirements. 64 https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/departmentofcommunitydevelopment/DCDPlanning/Code Updates/2024/SB 5290 Edits/PCD Documents/PCD Info Memo - Permitting Process Improvements.docx INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 5 FINANCIAL IMPACT Eliminating public hearing design review would lower the fees for that permit type but also save considerable staff time. RECOMMENDATION The Committee is being asked to forward this issue to the Planning Commission for a recommendation. It will then be returned to the Council in ordinance form for a hearing and decision. ATTACHMENTS Attachment A: Example Permit Timeline https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/departmentofcommunitydevelopment/DCDPlanning/Code Updates/2024/SB 5290 Edits/PCD Documents/PCD Info Memo - Permitting Process Improvements.docx 65 66 Attachment A: Example Permit Timeline Project: New Duplex within the Medium Density Residential zoning district Permit Case Study: Design Review Application Current Project Pathway: Application Submitted: City has 28 days to determine whether the application is complete. If the application is complete, staff will notify the public of the application. Permit Review: The Department will review the project for compliance with Tukwila Municipal Code and Design Review Guidelines and issue corrections if necessary. Upon determining that the project permit complies with the TMC and Design Review Guidelines, the Department will then prepare a detailed staff report. Public Hearing: The Department must schedule a Public Hearing at the next available Planning Commission session. As the Commission meets monthly, if the next meeting agenda is full the applicant may need to wait more than 30 days. Two weeks of notice must be given to the public for this hearing. Staff will present the project and explain the Design Review Criteria to the Board of Architectural Review, who will make the final determination. V Maximum Time to Issue Final Determination: 120 calendar days Actual review time is highly variable and frequently extended. r Proposed Project Pathway: Application Submitted: City has 28 days to determine whether the application is complete. If the application is complete, staff will notify the public of the application. tJ Permit Review: The Department will review the project for compliance with Tukwila Municipal Code and Design Review Guidelines and issue corrections, if necessary. The final decision maker is the Director of Community Development. Thus, when staff review is complete, the Department can prepare a staff report and issue the permit. Maximum Time to Issue Final Determination: 100 calendar days No additional time for scheduling or public notice for hearings is required. 67