Seattle’s Priority Green program - permitting isn’t “expedited,” it’s “facilitated”
If you’re a developer who’s been asking for “expedited permitting” for green buildings in Seattle… you’re not going to get it any time soon. What you are going to get, however, is “facilitated permitting.”
Facilitated permitting means that for pilot projects accepted into the program (like Bruno Lampert’s Capitol Hill project pictured at left), you get one contact person at DPD who will identify problem code areas and help work through the issues with you. Only super green projects (comparable to LEED gold or platinum) will be accepted into the program… sorry LEED silver, you’re just not green enough.
There are a number of code issues that sit in the way of going after really green systems. In fact, they pretty much run the gamut of topics depending on what you’re looking to do.
Bradley Khouri, architect with b9 Architects, is working on Urbansight, a project in the Priority Green pilot program. He said to really encourage green building, permitting needs to be quicker for green projects, it needs to be easier to deconstruct a project and the city needs to better recognize the use of stormwater on site. He also said zoning for infill development needs to be rewritten, but that’s another story.
What do you think are the code issues that need to change? (To read a past post on this topic, click here).
The city has been talking about launching an expedited permitting process for months, but when it came down to it, they didn’t want to guarantee projects going through the program would get through quicker than others, because they would have tougher code issues to deal with. For more on this topic, read my story in the DJC here.
So Seattle developers, if you want ”expedited green permitting,” you’re going to have to go to Kirkland…. they’ve got it for single-family green houses and are looking at it for commercial buildings. If on the other hand, you’re willing to pursue super green systems and are cool with the “facilitated” title, Seattle’s just the place for you.
Tags: architecture, DPD, Kirkland, permitting, Seattle
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August 31st, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Is the City of Seattle trying to make this an exclusive thing to be a part of? Are they trying to make this more difficult to do? Seems a little counter intuitive to me. Let’s see, going green costs more and then to top it off you have to reach LEED gold in order to be facilitated? Is it just me, or does this just take the wind out of people’s sail? I thought Seattle was leading the pack, this sounds like a set back.
The City of Redmond has a new green program of which my commercial project was the first one through it. I got my first building permit in 7 days and the second and third permits in 14. I thought that was pretty fast. I was very happy to be part of their program and glad to be expedited.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
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