Construction Permit - Establishing Use

What Is It?

Our Land Use Code specifies the type of development, called the use, allowed on property in different zones. It requires that all uses be established by permit. Learn how to get a building permit. Examples of different types of uses are single-family homes, multifamily residences, office buildings, and warehouses.

A permit to establish use is needed to change the use on your property, for example, from an office to a retail space. You need an addition / alteration permit to open a new business even if you're not remodeling the space. If you’re also renovating or remodeling your building, you can change your use as part of your addition / alteration permit without a separate permit to establish use. If the new use is not allowed outright by permit under our Land Use Code, you need to apply for a conditional use permit.

• Tip 102, Small Business: Getting Your Use and Building Permit from SDCI

Documenting Existence of a Use or Establishing Use for the Record

You may also want to obtain a permit to establish a use that is not currently established by permit. You may want to do this if you have a use on your property that was legal when it started but is not allowed under current land use code regulations or development standards. You will need to show that the use:

• meets all Seattle Municipal Code and Seattle Building Code standards that were in effect when the use began, or that the use pre-dates code requirements
• started prior to 1957 for a residential use or before 1923 for a nonresidential use
• has been ongoing since the use originally started
• has never been legally established by permit

To prove that your use was established when it would have been legal, you must submit 2 pieces of documentation that show it is more probable than not that the use existed prior to the property’s critical date. Examples include:

• Occupancy listings from the Polk Directory or Reverse Telephone Directories. The Seattle City Clerk’s Office at 600 4th Ave and the Seattle Public Library, Central Branch, at 1000 4th Ave have copies of the Polk reverse directories dating from 1939. To submit reverse directory information as proof of use, make copies of the pages showing the occupants of your property at several year intervals beginning at the time you wish to establish the occupancy.
• Business and/or licensing records from the Washington State Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, (206) 684-8484. These records can document a business use.
• County records showing the previous permitted use if the property was formerly not part of the City of Seattle. Contact King County zoning at (206) 296-6655. Very few of these records are available.
• Tax assessment records for the property. You can obtain records from 1972 to the present from the King County Assessor. You must get tax records prior to 1972 from the Washington State Archives Puget Sound Branch, located in Bellevue, (425) 564-3940. To obtain tax records, you will need the tax account number and the legal description of the property.
• Sewer hookup records from the Seattle Department of Transportation's Street Use Section, (206) 684-5253.
• Electric or gas meter connections from Seattle City Light or Puget Sound Energy.
• Signed written statements from people having no financial interest in the property and who are not relatives of the applicant or property owner but have knowledge about the historical the use of the prop-erty. These may be current or previous residents, neighbors, or other people in the area. Notarization is not required.
• Other evidence that SDCI's Director deems useful and reliable, based on the circumstances of the individual case. Examples include, but are not limited to:
  • photographs
  • U.S. Census reports

How Much Does It Cost?

Our fees are based on the value of your project. All fees are subject to an additional technology fee. You pay approximately 75 percent of your fees when you submit your plans and the rest when you pick up your permit. Use our fee estimator to calculate how much your permit will cost. The permit fee to establish use for the record is 1.5 times the SDCI Base Fee. If construction is included, the fee will include both a permit fee and a plan review fee based on the cost of the construction. SDCI will charge for a minimum of two hours at the land use hourly rate. We will charge additional land use hours on an hourly basis.

How Long Does It Take?

We try to finish our initial review of simple permit applications in 2-3 weeks and complex permits in 8 weeks. How long it takes to get the final permit depends on how complex your project is and how many corrections, if any, you need to make.