Stormwater Public Meeting - August 4, 2009
The City of Seattle invites you to attend a public meeting on updates to the Stormwater, Grading and Drainage Control Code, which will held on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., at the Seattle Municipal Tower, Room 4050, 700 Fifth Ave.

The City of Seattle is revising the code and associated Director’s Rules to account for advances in urban stormwater runoff management practices. These regulations are in place to protect life, property, public health and the environment from the adverse impacts of urban stormwater runoff.

Please RSVP for the meeting, by contacting Tyson Lin at (206) 684-8443.

Please RSVP for the meeting, by contacting Tyson Lin at (206) 684-8443.

Noise Code Amended
In Spring 2009, the City Council and Mayor adopted changes to the Noise Code to:

• Improve enforcement when there are complaints
• Limit hours for noisy construction
• Address noise generated by major public projects
• Update the code to be consistent with current technology 
• Chapter 25.08 of the Seattle Municipal Code addresses noise control. The amendments to this chapter, contained in Ordinance 122923, were signed by the Mayor on March 10, 2009. Following a mandatory review by the State Department of Ecology, the new rules went into effect on June 15, 2009.

Highlights of the updated Noise Code include:

Better enforcement: DPD’s noise abatement staff now have more tools to address noise complaints. The new tools include citations (fines), stop work orders, the ability to revoke a noise variance, and the ability to impose civil penalty fines on violators. These strengthen enforcement with the goal of reducing noisy disruptions in neighborhoods, especially at night.

Earlier quitting times for noisy construction in some zones: The new rules set a 7 p.m. quitting time (rather than 10 p.m.) for noisy construction work in the Lowrise, Midrise, Highrise and Neighborhood Commercial zones. These are the most common zones for larger construction projects around the city.

Noise provisions for major public projects: A noise variance process allows DPD to require mitigation unique to noisy activity associated with the construction of major projects such as for the light rail system. The new process includes requirements for upfront analysis, effective noise management and mitigation techniques, and public notification and input. DPD's Director's Rule 3-2009 has been drafted to provide more information about the various noise variance processes, including for major public projects. For more information, visit the Noise Abatement website.

For more information, visit the Noise Abatement website.

Building and Residential Code Interpretations Available Online
DPD’s interpretations of selected provisions of the Seattle Building
Code and the Seattle Residential Code are now available
online. The interpretations are prepared by DPD’s
Construction Review and Inspection Quality (CRIQ) Team, and interpret how DPD applies code requirements to projects under review. The interpretations are intended to provide guidance to the design community and to DPD staff for consistency of review on common or important issues. This is in keeping with our policy to make generally-applicable policies available to all interested parties, as we have done through publishing code interpretations and standard code alternates in the adopted codes. 

These interpretations are subject to change without notice, and the application of these interpretations to specific projects may vary. If you have questions whether a particular interpretation applies to a specific project:

DPD’s interpretations of selected provisions of the Seattle Building
Code and the Seattle Residential Code are now available
online. 

DPD and the Construction Codes Advisory Board (CCAB) have begun
reviewing chapters of the draft 2009 Seattle Building Code (SBC).

Interdepartmental Permit Coordination Moves to Master Use Permits
In a continuing effort to expand and improve the existing interdepartmental permit coordination program, to simplify the preliminary permit application process, and to provide more comprehensive information to applicants, the following changes will take effect by the end of July 2009:

• A preliminary assessment will now be conducted on all land use projects (MUPs). For the past two years, the program focused only on construction projects with new structures. Because of the assessment’s benefits, we are expanding the program to include all MUPs. This will help applicants identify, even earlier, any potential requirements that may impact their projects before they submit their MUP applications.
• The Preliminary Application Form (PAF), site plan and Preliminary Application Site Visit application will now be required when submitting all MUP project numbers. In the past, lot boundary adjustments, short plats and unit lot subdivisions were exempt from this requirement. By expanding this requirement to include all MUPs, City departments will have an opportunity to provide applicants feedback as to potential impacts for their projects.
• The water availability approval or certificate (assessment of water supply to properties) will now be done earlier in the process to help applicants design their projects better. This is a joint effort between DPD and Seattle Public Utilities.

For more information, please contact Luke McQuillin, DPD Interdepartmental Project Manager at (206) 615-0721.