2025 Design Review Program Changes - What and Why

What’s Happening Now?

The City is in the process of updating the Design Review Program to respond to Washington State House Bill 1293.

SDCI is proposing new interim legislation to meet the State House Bill 1293 deadline of June 30, 2025. The proposed interim legislation will temporarily suspend required design review for six months, making design review voluntary for proposed development. These regulations will be in place while SDCI works to develop permanent changes to the Design Review program and guidelines as required by house bill 1293, as well as updating affordable housing measures.

City staff will use the additional six months to respond to stakeholder and public engagement recommendations and to work through code amendments, Director’s Rules, and guidance documents to clarify code requirements and procedures. Permanent legislation and new Design Guidelines are anticipated for Council review in the third quarter of 2025. Permanent legislation will include:

• Making the Design Review permit process faster by requiring fewer steps and one public meeting
• Changing Design Review to apply only to larger buildings in denser areas of Seattle
• Changing the Design Guidelines to be shorter and easier to understand
• Regulating only building exteriors
• Maintaining the density, height, bulk, or scale at what is allowed by the zoning
• Flexibility in design standards in exchange for public benefits
• Replacing eight area-specific Design Review Boards with a single central Design Review Board

The interim ordinance would include a six-month extention for a Design Review exemption for projects that meet Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) requirements through onsite affordable units that is set to expire in August 2025 (Ordinance 126854). However, the interim ordinance will allow the Director to approve departures for qualifying proposed development as a Type I administrative decision. During the two-year exemption pilot, proposed onsite housing units more than doubled compared to all prior years of the MHA program. Building on this success, the legislative proposal coming later this summer would make this exemption permanent.

Learn about the current Design Review Program here.

Project Benefits

The changes to design review should:

• Make the Design Review permit process faster
• Make the design review process easier for everyone to understand and more consistent
• Encourage integration of affordable housing within market-rate development

The End Result

Permanent legislation and new Design Guidelines are anticipated for Council review the third quarter of 2025 to comply with Washington State House Bill 1293.