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Planning staff summarizes February 2025 development activity; building department reports staffing strain
Summary
Staff presented the Community Development Department’s February 2025 report, listing permit and inspection counts, a project highlight (Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue Station 31 maintenance shop), ongoing permitting system work and temporary staffing shortages in the building division.
At the March 24 Monroe Planning Commission meeting staff presented the Community Development Department’s February 2025 monthly report, summarizing permit activity, project highlights and current staffing and system issues.
The report—presented by department staff—noted four single‑family permits issued in February, three tenant improvement permits and 20 residential building permits; the department recorded roughly 18 inspections for the month, opened six new code‑enforcement cases and closed eight. The packet also listed 96 new business licenses processed in the reporting period.
Staff highlighted the Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue Station 31 maintenance shop project: a roughly 3,000‑square‑foot maintenance shop addition whose final building inspection was approved in February. The project’s timeline in the report shows pre‑application activity in 2023, building permits issued in January 2024, and civil permits issued in November 2023, a sequence staff said was complicated by a water main reroute.
Planning staff also reported ongoing work with the Davenport Group to implement a new permitting system and said the building division is operating below full staffing: the plans reviewer accepted a building official role elsewhere and the building permit technician position was vacant but an offer had been made to a candidate. To keep project reviews moving, staff said they are sending some work to an outside plan‑review consultant and continuing code‑enforcement activity such as removing non‑permitted signage.
Staff noted several ongoing housing‑related code projects: the conversion‑of‑existing‑structures amendments (discussed earlier in the meeting), accessory dwelling unit code amendments scheduled for public hearing in April, an interim R7 ordinance under consideration, and the larger middle‑housing project (townhomes, triplexes, fourplexes, cottage apartments) that will return for full review. Staff also reported on annexation steps: a Palmer annexation will be before council the next day and the Monroe 30 annexation had received Snohomish County Boundary Review Board approval.
