SDCI Customer Service Options

Most services are available online through our Virtual Applicant Services Center. For customers who need language assistance or technical assistance accessing the Virtual ASC, we have an SDCI information desk on the 4th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower. We offer limited access to our offices for scheduled public meetings.

Wildland-Urban Interface Code

The 2021 Washington state codes will be mandatory on March 15, 2024. The effective date for the 2021 Seattle codes is no sooner than July 1, 2024. Applicants may use the 2021 Washington codes with the draft Seattle amendments before March 15, 2024, when accompanied by a code modification request. Between March 15, 2024, and the Seattle code effective date, applicants may use either the 2018 or 2021 Seattle codes without a code modification request. Please visit the 2021 Seattle Code Adoption webpage for updates.

What Is It?

The Seattle Wildland-Urban Interface Code (SWUIC) regulates construction near wildland areas to:

Protect life and property from wildland fires
Prevent building fires from spreading to wildland areas

This code requires that you build with ignition-resistant construction (using materials and methods that make structures less likely to catch fire and burn) when your building is within a wildland-urban interface or intermix area.

When will it be adopted?

The new Seattle Wildland-Urban Interface Code was scheduled to be adopted when Seattle adopts the 2021 codes. However, that adoption has been delayed.

Senate Bill 6120 and a Washington State Building Code Council emergency rule has delayed the 2021 State WUIC adoption until the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) develops and publishes new statewide wildfire hazard and wildfire risk maps to replace the current state Wildland-Urban Interface map. There is not an expected timeframe for the development of these maps, but it is expected to take at least a year and a half. As a result, Seattle must also delay adopting and implementing the new 2021 SWUIC until the state mapping is completed and Seattle can incorporate the changes into the draft SWUIC.

When the new maps are adopted, the Washington state WUIC will include ignition resistant construction requirements but not hazard mitigation strategies, such as establishing defensible space that restricts combustible vegetation and trees near buildings.

Does it apply to my project?

The SWUIC does not apply to projects at this time since it has not yet been adopted. When adopted, this code will apply to construction within wildland and wildland-urban interface and intermix areas in Seattle.

Read the Code

Read a draft of the SWUIC on our 2021 Seattle Code Adoption website.

Proposed Changes

The draft SWUIC code is available on our 2021 Seattle Code Adoption website. We will post a link to a revised draft of the SWUIC on this page after new maps are published.