Permit Review Improvements - What & Why

What's Happening Now?

In 2023, the Washington State Legislature passed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5290 (“SB 5290”) that amended the Local Project Review Act, chapter 36.70B RCW. SB 5290 requires permitting agencies to update permit review timelines and related rules to ensure efficient review processes for land use permits. 

In response, the City has now amended its Land Use Code to update the permit review timelines for the different types of land use permit applications.  SDCI worked with Mayor Harrell and Councilmember Sara Nelson to adopt the necessary amendments in Council Bill 121045 that she sponsored.

On September 16, 2025, the City Council approved Council Bill 121045, and Mayor Bruce Harrell signed it into law as Ordinance 127300 (shown as Amendment 1) in the CB 121045 webpage. It will go into effect on November 24, 2025.       

The adopted code will improve SDCI’s land use permit review processes to issue permits faster and increase predictability and transparency about SDCI’s performance for our customers.

SDCI and other City departments will also continue working on other permit process reforms being identified by the Mayor’s Permitting and Customer Trust (PACT) Team, which was established by Executive Order 2025-05. This effort will streamline how the City of Seattle delivers housing and small business permitting and serves customers.

Project Benefits

Benefits of adopting new permit review timelines:

• Help address Seattle’s urgent need for housing, including affordable housing
• Improve SDCI’s permit application review performance transparency with more efficient tracking and reporting our progress on our website and to the state Department of Commerce
• Comply with state law

The End Result

These Land Use Code and other future updates will allow for us to:

• Meet state law mandates that help address the need for housing in Seattle
• Increase efficiency in SDCI’s review and issuance of permits