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Anacortes staff proposes streamlined permits; recommends moving most quasi‑judicial decisions to hearing examiner
Summary
City planning staff told the Planning Commission Sept. 10 that proposed updates to Title 19 would shorten administrative steps for many building permits, shift more contested land‑use decisions from the Planning Commission to a contracted hearing examiner and reconsider local shoreline appeals.
Anacortes planning staff on Sept. 10 proposed a package of development‑regulation changes designed to speed some permit reviews and reduce legal risk by shifting many quasi‑judicial land‑use decisions to a hearing examiner.
The proposal would reclassify certain shoreline substantial development permits as a Type 2 administrative decision, leave shoreline conditional‑use and variance permits to a Type 3 hearing‑examiner process, and give the planning director discretion to require pre‑application neighborhood meetings rather than mandating them for lower‑level applications.
The change matters because the city’s Unified Development Code (Anacortes Municipal Code Title 19) currently ties different application types to different processes — Type 1 (ministerial), Type 2 (administrative), Type 3 (hearing examiner or Planning Commission) and Type 4 (City Council). Under the draft, many matters that now go to the Planning Commission in a quasi‑judicial role would…
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