Design Review - Administrative

What Is It?

Administrative Design Review is required for some new mid-rise commercial and residential development projects such as:

  • An office building or apartment building
  • A commercial or multifamily development
  • Other developments that meet the size threholds in certain zones

Design Review considers multiple aspects of a building and site including:

  • The overall appearance of the building
  • How the proposal relates to adjacent sites and the overall street frontage
  • How the proposal relates to unusual aspects of the site, like views or slopes
  • Pedestrian and vehicular access to the site
  • Quality of materials, open space, and landscaping

Our review process includes opportunity for public comment and involvement before we approve your design. You may request "departures" for flexibility from the Land Use Code as part of your Design Review proposal.

To find the design guidelines that apply to your project, go to our Design Review Guidelines page. There you can find the citywide (multifamily and commercial buildings), downtown, and neighborhood-specific design guidelines.

How Much Does It Cost?

Our review fee is the hourly rate for Land Use review. Current fees, including an additional technology fee, are listed in the Fee Subtitle. You need to pay up front for the first 10 hours of review when you submit your application. After we accept your application, we will send you a monthly invoice for all review time completed in that billing cycle. If you do not pay your invoice, we will stop reviewing your project.

How Long Does It Take?

The review process is dependent upon several factors:

  • Quality of plans and project documentation
  • Your response time to correction letters and requests for further information
  • Public interest in your project

Your project may also qualify for a different review if it meets criteria for Streamlined Design Review or Full Design Review.

Steps to Get Your Permit

Get your property information. Find property information to help you plan your project.

Learn about Design Review. 

Coordinate with other agencies. You may need permits or approvals from other agencies. These are the most common agencies you may need to work with for your permit type:

Learn about street improvement permits. Consult these documents to understand the required SDOT Street Improvement Permitting (SIP) Process:

Find incentive programs and zoning for your project. Research the City's different incentives that might apply to your project.

Start your application. Complete the Building & Land Use Pre-Application online using the Seattle Services Portal. You will also need to upload a site plan and a complete legal description for your site. You'll receive an email once we have added the pre-application site visit (PASV) fees to your project. A project number will be assigned to you. After you have paid the fee, we will perform the inspection. Your preliminary application materials will be sent to other departments for their review and comment.

Read our pre-application report. You will receive a preliminary application report that will include critical information based on preliminary reviews by our site inspector, land use planner, and drainage reviewer. This report will also include preliminary reviews by the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle City Light. Our report will highlight the required street or alley improvements for your project and may include other relevant project or code issues. You will also receive an email from the Department of Neighborhoods (DON) regarding the community outreach requirement associated with Design Review.

Conduct your community outreach. Visit DON's Early Community Outreach for Design Review webpage for information and resources about planning, conducting, and documenting your community outreach. The DON staff contact listed on that webpage is responsible for reviewing and approving your outreach documentation and is available to answer any questions you have about your outreach. You may begin your outreach at any time, however it must be completed before we will begin any review of your application.

Apply for a pre-submittal conference. Submit the following forms to the Applicant Services Center and pay fees in order to schedule your pre-submittal conference. At the pre-submittal conference we will go over the Design Review process, project issues and your questions.

We highly encourage you to upload your draft Early Design Guidance (EDG) packet along with your pre-submittal materials. This will allow staff to begin review of your packet and provide feedback at the pre-submittal conference, which will likely save review time after you submit your application. We also recommend that you use the EDG Packet Checklist Worksheet to document where you provided the information. Please provide a copy of this worksheet in your draft packet that you submit to your planner.

Attend the pre-submittal conference. Attend the pre-submittal conference with City staff who will answer your questions and provide you with advice about the Design Review process. You will need to take notes and email them to us after the pre-submittal conference. We will review the pre-submittal notes and make any changes that are needed.

Once we have finalized the pre-submittal notes and the SDCI planner has approved and uploaded them to the project file, you may submit your Early Design Guidance (EDG) application.

Submit EDG application. We will accept your EDG application after you submit a complete application through your Seattle Services Portal. You do not need to schedule an intake appointment for EDG applications. You do, however, need to follow the steps in How to Submit Your EDG Application. We may contact you for more information, if anything is missing, when we screen your materials.

Upload the following documents:

Also upload your EDG packet here following these instructions on how to upload a packet.

Pay fees. EDG fees are listed on the back of the Land Use Application Fee Requirements.

Prepare for your EDG review. We will give you our comments and feedback on your draft EDG packet developed using the EDG Packet Checklist.

Wait for public notice and public comments. We will publish a public notice about your application in the public notice section of the Seattle Services Portal, post it at the project site, and mail it to people within 300 feet of your site. 

Submit final EDG packet. 

Upload the following to your portal as follows:

  • Final EDG packet (referred to as Design Review Proposal in the portal) developed using the EDG Packet Checklist and any feedback you’ve received from the Land Use Review planner. In the Description field in the portal write: “Final EDG.”
  • Digital image of massing concepts (referred to as Design Review Proposal cover page in the portal). 

Please also upload these documents to Hightail following these instructions for preparing and sending your packet and digital image.

Optional: Meet with land use review planner prior to EDG report. It may be helpful to meet with your assigned land use review planner to review your EDG packet and discuss how to respond to any design review issues.

Review of your final EDG packet, EDG Report. We will review the packet and provide guidance to develop the design. We will prepare an EDG report with this information and send our report to you and interested parties and post it on our website.

Schedule an intake appointment. Your EDG Report must be completed before you apply for a master use permit. Schedule an intake appointment through your Seattle Services Portal. You must upload all application documents by 7:00 a.m. the day of your appointment. We may contact you for more information when we screen your application materials. 

Submit your master use permit (MUP) application. Upload the following information to the portal for your appointment:

  • Existing preliminary site plan as described in Tip 103, Site Plan Requirements (referred to as Site Plan in the Portal)
  • Any other forms or information required for other land use permit parts of your MUP application (see links below)

Other helpful forms and information: 

Here's more information about other types of land use / master use permits that may be required for your MUP:

Pay fees. You must pay a minimum fee for your review, any accrued land use hourly fees, and noticing fees at intake. You will receive an email once we have added fees to your project. You must pay your fees before we will post any public notice or conduct any reviews. We will invoice you monthly for additional fees during the review process. We will stop reviewing your project if you do not pay your monthly invoice.

Wait for public notice. We will issue a public notice for your project as required by SMC 23.76.012, including posting the public notice information at the site. You are responsible for building and installing a large land use notice sign. (This sign must remain in place until the end of the appeal period or the Hearing Examiner decision, if applicable.). Once you've installed the sign, let us know by submitting an Environmental Sign Installation Notification using the Seattle Services Portal.

We will start a 14-day or 21-day public comment period on your project. The comment period can be extended for another 14-days by request. We'll consider all public comments we receive during the project review.

Make corrections and resubmit your plans with a draft Recommendation packet. Once all our reviews are done, you will receive an email telling you that you can upload corrected and/or additional documents into your portal. Update your plans and/or provide the information in the correction letters. Your project may require multiple correction rounds before our reviews are complete. You will also need to upload your draft Recommendation packet to the portal (see next step).

Develop design recommendation packet. Include all the information identified in the Land Use Review correction letter and the REC Packet Checklist (referred to as Design Review Proposal in the portal). When you are ready to submit your corrections, upload the following documents to the portal:

  • Updated plans and correction responses
  • Draft digital Recommendation packet developed using the REC Packet Checklist (referred to as Design Review Proposal in the portal). In the Seattle Services Portal Description field,l write: “Draft REC.”

Please also upload these documents to Hightail following these instructions for preparing and sending your packet and digital image.

Submit final Recommendation packet. We will review your corrected plans, and give you feedback on your draft recommendation packet. Once you have updated the Recommendation packet with these changes, upload to your portal as follows:

  • Final Recommendation packet developed using the REC Packet Checklist (referred to as Design Review Proposal in the portal). In the Description field in the Seattle Services Portal write: “Final REC.”
  • Digital image of design rendering (referred to as Design Review Proposal cover page in the portal). 

Please also upload these documents to Hightail following these instructions for preparing and sending your packet and digital image.

Review of your final design Recommendation packet. We will review the packet and your response to the EDG and make preliminary recommendations. We might recommend changes to the design to meet Design Guidelines. We will prepare a Recommendation report with this information and send our report to you and interested parties and post it on our website.

Make remaining corrections. Once all our reviews are done, you will receive an email telling you that you can upload corrected and/or additional documents into your portal. Update your plans and/or provide the information in the correction letters, including responses to any Design Review recommended conditions.

Pay outstanding fees. Once our review is complete, you will receive an email for any outstanding fees. You must pay these fees before we publish our decision.

Read our decision. We will publish our decision on your project in our public notice section of the Seattle Services Portal once all reviews are complete. We will also send a notice of our decision to everybody that made a written comment on your project. Our decision will include any required conditions of approval, some that you must meet before we issue your permit.

How to submit an appeal. If you or a member of the public disagrees with our decision, you may file an appeal with the Hearing Examiner within 14 days from when we publish our decision.

Note the expiration date. The expiration date of your permit is based on the date when the permit is ready to be issued before you have paid the outstanding fees. If there is an appeal, the expiration date is based on the end of the appeal or the City Hearing Examiner decision. Your permit may expire, and therefore your application may expire, without having a permit issued.

Pay final fees. We will notify you if you need to pay any final fees before we issue your permit.

Print your permit. We will notify you when we have issued your permit and the documents are available in your portal.

Apply for Construction Permit. You may apply for a construction permit at any time once you submit a land use / master use permit application. However, the project can change and evolve through the land use application review process. If you choose to submit a construction permit application before the master use permit is issued, please be aware that changes through the MUP review may require costly building plan changes.

Construction and Inspections

Nathan Torgelson, Director
Address: 700 5th Ave, Suite 2000, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 34019, Seattle, WA, 98124-4019
Phone: (206) 684-8600
Phone Alt: Violation Complaint Line: (206) 615-0808
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SDCI issues land use, construction, and trade permits, conducts construction and housing-related inspections, ensures compliance with our codes, and regulates rental rules. SDCI is committed to an antiracist workplace and to addressing racism through our work in the community.