Seattle Department of Planning and Development

Leadership: Director Diane Sugimura, Deputy Director Alan Justad, Planning Director Ray Gastil, Operations Director Bob Laird, Code Compliance Director Karen White, Corporate Services Developer Felecia Caldwell

Projects: Creating a new design review process for townhouses; developing a way to extend building permit timelines; evaluating the current MUP and design review process; up-zones for South Lake Union and South Downtown; making revisions to the multifamily code

Image courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Permits for industrial and institutional facilities are up at the Seattle DPD, thanks to large projects such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters.

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development is looking into ways of extending building permits beyond their original expiration dates. DPD Director Diane Sugimura said the department is exploring ways to help permit holders with expired permits or not-yet-expired permits, somehow extend allowable build times.

With some builders and developers finding financing or other parts of their schedules taking longer than they have in the past, Sugimura said Mayor Greg Nickels asked the department to look into the matter. DPD is checking with other local permitting offices that are exploring similar measures, and plans to put some options together this month.

Sugimura said one option is to put permits on hold at certain points in the process. She said the program will need to factor in changes in zoning or the community that could occur.

Permit values drop

DPD is not as busy as it was last year, Sugimura said. She said the volume of permits hasn’t gone down much from last year, but the value of the permits has decreased more significantly. Sugimura said DPD is now on track for permit value totals of about $2.9 billion for 2008, compared with $3.2 billion in 2007. But Sugimura said 2006 was “a big year” and 2007 was “off the charts” relative to the department’s usual workload.

“It’s a decline in terms of value” (from 2006 and 2007), she said. “But in 2005, which was a fairly normal year, the intake value was only $2 billion.”

Sugimura said residential permits have taken the biggest hit, with single-family and townhouse construction permits especially slow. She said multifamily, commercial and mixed-use permits are still coming in fairly steadily, and institutional and industrial permits actually increased over last year, based on last month’s numbers.

Sugimura said some of the permits now being filed are for final phases of projects that started a while ago. Big projects in the pipeline include Amazon’s new headquarters in South Lake Union, the Gates Foundation Headquarters near the Seattle Center and Sound Transit projects. She said the city’s major institutions are also fairly active, with project planning under way on housing at University Village, projects at UW, Seattle Children’s master plan and Swedish Medical Center/Providence.

More rentals

The department doesn’t directly track whether multifamily permits are for condo or apartment use, but Sugimura said she is hearing that the projects are overwhelmingly rental, with some projects already planned for condos switching over. That’s in great contrast to 2007, when Sugimura said the city’s available rental stock actually decreased thanks to condo conversions and a lack of apartment construction.

“We had a great demand, a need for rental,” she said. “We had already seen that there were already developers starting to think rental even before this drop in things.”

In spite of a slower workload, the department has not laid off any staff, Sugimura said. She said during boom times DPD increases its use of consultants and overtime rather than hire a lot of new people. The department is now cutting down mandatory overtime, cutting back the use of consultants, and plans to get rid of 12 contingent or term positions in 2009.

“If you hire up in the up-cycle (you) then have to fire them later,” she said. “We’re constantly monitoring revenues and projecting what they mean and are thinking very carefully before filling current positions.”

Design review changes

The department is working on a new design review process for townhouses and is holding discussions on the current MUP and design review process, evaluating whether changes need to be made in the processes. It is also looking into electronic options for plan review and working on a pilot project to prioritize green building projects. It is working on up-zones for South Lake Union and South Downtown and on revisions to the multifamily code that should go to the city council by year end.

Next up is updating neighborhood plans and gearing up for redesign of the waterfront once a decision is made on replacing the viaduct.

Sugimura said DPD will also soon hear recommendations from green building task forces that were established to evaluate how the city can reduce the energy used in new and existing buildings.

“When things slow down, it gives us more of an opportunity to do the process-improvement things,” she said.