“Last winter, Snohomish County Judge James Allendoerfer ruled that King County’s development permitting system suffered from serious flaws. He ordered a number of remedies,” said Councilmember Dunn. “Today, we want to take it a step further and build on those fixes.”
For years, property owners in unincorporated King County have been overcharged for their development permits. In a May 4th ruling, Judge Allendoerfer decided that plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit were entitled to $2.4 million in compensatory damages for overcharges from 2003-2006. By declining to seek an appeal of the ruling, King County has opted to pay the damages and avoid further litigation stemming from the 3-year lawsuit.
“Many of our problems stem from the fact that people just don’t know how the permitting system works – or that it’s too complicated for the small guy to understand,” said Dunn. “Most of the big developers already know how to deal with the system, but it’s the individual small property owners who get dinged inappropriately.”
As of June 1, 2007, DDES had lowered its hourly rate from
$144.90 to $139.90, as required by the court order. However, that rate
change has not yet been approved by the King County Council.
“The judge told us our fees were too high and must be lowered. We need to see whether a $5 per hour reduction is what was intended,” said Constantine. “Let’s get a panel of industry experts, community leaders, and representatives from forestry, agriculture, and environmental protection organizations to help us identify the best solution.”
Dunn and Constantine introduced two ordinances to memorialize the judge’s ruling into law and step up the reform process at DDES so that King County becomes more responsive to the needs of its property owners. The first ordinance would:
• Require DDES to formally adopt public rules relating to how permit fees are administered, how director-mandated fee waivers are administered, how fee estimates are produced, and how fee refunds are established in appeals cases;
• Reduce delinquent payment penalties from 1.5% to 1.0% - bringing them in line with state law; and
• Establish a Technical Advisory Committee to review and recommend changes to the Council about DDES’ permitting processes, with an emphasis on lowering fee rates.
The second ordinance would:
• Require notification to property owners prior to field verifications, except in cases of imminent environmental or public safety harm;
• Overhaul ‘voluntary compliance agreements,’ allowing property owners to maintain their right of appeal;
• Require the agency to establish public rules relating to code enforcement;
• Strengthen the requirement that code enforcement officers follow agency procedures;
• Require all departments with code enforcement authority to establish a database of land-based violations and make that data available to other agencies; and
• Require the agency to mail copies of all warnings, stop work orders, citations, notice and orders, and voluntary compliance agreements to complainants who wish to be advised of enforcement efforts.
“We are going to build on the excellent improvements that DDES is currently making to its customer outreach,” said Constantine. “This proposal is aimed at ensuring fairness for property owners and increasing voluntary compliance with important environmental and land-use laws.”
Read
more about this legislation on the King County Council’s LEGISEARCH
system.
Type in “2007-0398” and “2007-0399”
Phone: (206) 296-1000 | Fax: (206) 296-0198 | TTY/TDD:
(206) 296-1024 | Toll Free: (800) 325-6165
Mailing Address: King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, Room 1200,
Seattle, WA 98104-3272