Permits and Rates

The city of Seattle’s ultimate goal is to remove all private uses of shoreline street ends and improve them for public use.  Currently, however, the Shoreline Street Ends Program is funded by annual permit fees collected from private users, and the permit process acknowledges that some private uses will continue.

Most private permits relate to only a portion of the street end and therefore are compatible with public use.  A few private permits relate to maritime industrial land uses that show an important operational need for an adjacent shoreline street that would be incompatible with safe access by the public; these are considered higher priority than public access.

As established by city Ordinance 119673, permit fees are based on a formula that considers square feet, type of barriers, land values, probable public demand and an annualized rate.  The permit fee structure has not changed since the ordinance was adopted in 1999 and is currently under evaluation by SDOT.