For the first time since 1996, side sewer and drainage permit fees in Seattle are going up.

These fees are being increased both to adjust for inflation and to fully cover costs. Effective Feb. 28, 2005, this change affects permit applications for a side sewer or service drain connection, repair, alteration or addition.

Previously, side sewer and drainage permit fees never covered more than 40 percent of the City's program administration costs. The City's costs for this permitting program total approximately $1.5 million per year, while revenues in 2004 (and prior years) have averaged about $650,000 per year.

In the 2005 budget process, the City made the decision to increase side sewer and drainage permit fees to cover all costs, which necessitated large increases in these fees. Fee information, resources and key contacts are available at right.

Frequently Asked Questions

What City of Seattle functions (costs) are covered by the new side sewer and drainage permit fees?

Four main City functions are involved in the permitting process:

• application intake and review process
• site inspection
• program administration (public/customer information, staff supervision, etc.)
• side sewer and drainage record keeping, which is now performed digitally using the City's Geographic Information System (GIS)

All of the new side sewer and drainage permit fees include a component for these four functions--except the side sewer repair permit fee, which is discounted to reflect the lower level of inspections and recording effort the City incurs for these types of permits. All the new fees include applicable City and State taxes.

The new fee for side sewer and drainage installations, connections, alterations, and relocations is $375? What is included in the fee?

This fee covers the City's cost of receiving and reviewing a customer's application, up to one hour of inspection time. It also includes two hours for recording and digitizing any changes made by the customer to a side sewer and/or drain line associated with an application. Each hour of City time is priced at $85/hour, which includes program administration ("overhead").

City and State B&O taxes are also added to this fee. Side sewer repair permits, which require a lower level of inspection and recording effort on the part of the City, are set at $280. If a permit requires more than one of hour of inspection time, extra hours are billed at $155 per hour.

Is the City doing anything to reduce the costs of obtaining side sewer and drainage permit connection fees?

The City continues to work on improving online resources to save customers time and money during the permitting process and to ensure accuracy of information. For example, side sewer cards (drawings of the locations of side sewers and drain connections) for every property in the City were made available online in 2003 via the City's GIS. Now, a contractor, citizen or other party who needs a side sewer and/or drainage permit can obtain information about the location, age, and history of alterations of their side sewer and/or drain line from their computer at their home or office. Prior to 2003, the customer had to make a two (or more) hour trip to downtown City offices to get a hard copy of this information.