Anacortes staff proposes shifting shoreline permit reviews to administrative and hearing-examiner processes to speed decisions

Anacortes planning staff proposed reclassifying several permit-review types to shorten timelines and reduce legal risk, including moving shoreline substantial development permits to an administrative decision and assigning shoreline conditional-use and variance permits to a contracted hearing examiner. Libby Grage, Planning Manager, told the Planning Commission that “this proposal would move Shoreline substantial development permits, to a type 2 administrative decision,” and that conditional-use and variance permits would become Type 3 hearing-examiner decisions.

The change matters because state and local law currently layer multiple review and appeal steps for shoreline permits. Grage said the city currently offers a local appeal to City Council after a local decision and then must file the permit with the Washington State Department of Ecology, which triggers a separate state-level appeal period to the Shorelines Hearings Board. Grage said that local appeals add an additional 14-day delay before Ecology filing and that “there's a long, drawn out...a lot of waiting, for multiple appeals.”

The plannin…