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New state siding law and local design standards prompt review of county design-review process
Summary
Council members flagged a pending state law that would limit local regulation of siding materials, noted an exception for towns with designated themes, and discussed restoring the Sound Design Review Committee and removing single-family exemptions in local design standards.
County council and advisory members discussed a pending state law that would constrain local authority to regulate building siding materials and considered how local design standards and review processes should respond.
The topic matters because recent state action could reduce local design controls that counties have used to preserve neighborhood character; council members said they want the local design-review committee restored and design standards revised accordingly.
Justin, reporting to the committee, said a bill that would restrict cities and counties from designating permitted siding materials had passed the state legislature and awaited the governor's signature. "So, it has not been signed into law by the governor. It's at that stage. So May 15, the governor's supposed to have signed everything he's gonna sign," he said. The draft included an explicit carve-out naming towns that may retain themed siding requirements; Justin characterized one example as a Bavarian-theme exemption included in the language.
Council and advisory members said the law could affect design standards used in Eastsound and the broader sound-design-review process. They discussed whether to revise local standards to remove the single-family exemption that currently keeps single-family residences from some design-review requirements. Committee members argued that removal of the exemption would let the county hold single-family projects to the same design expectations as other development.
Staff and members discussed that the county's design-review committee (referred to in the meeting as the Sound Design Review Committee) is currently underused and should be reconstituted so planners can route design-review-eligible projects to a volunteer panel before permits are approved. One council member said reinstating and “making functional” the committee would give staff more leverage to require standards that remain permissible under state law.
No formal policy change was adopted at the meeting. Members asked planning staff to explore how the county's design standards and the committee's membership and workload could be adjusted if the state law becomes final.
