Mill Creek reviews 2024 permitting data and flags permitting software, enforcement and fee issues

Director Ryan, the city’s community development planning director, presented a review of Mill Creek’s 2024 permitting activity and identified software problems, enforcement gaps and a forthcoming fee study.

Ryan said the city issued 861 permits in calendar year 2024 that generated about $289,000 in fees and that average review time across all permit types was about 10.6 days. He told the council the most common permits were mechanical (373 permits) while planning permits were the fewest. He said building permits generate the largest share of revenue — about $174,000 in 2024 — and noted the city outsources many technical reviews to a third-party contractor.

Ryan told council that right-of-way permits took the longest to process (about 40 days) because review includes coordination with outside agencies such as WSDOT and the Department of Transportation. He said mechanical and plumbing permits are often issued the same day and that when those are excluded the average permit review time by city staff is about 19 days.

Ryan also presented a longer-term trend the department has tracked: a decline in common maintenance permits, including an almost 80% drop in roofing permits since 2015. He said the data do not show whether that decline reflects fewer projects or fewer people filing permits. “Answer is we don't know,” Ryan said. “But we do think that that decline is ... maybe telling that there is a lot of permitted activity that's happening citywide” without permitting.

Council members raised operational and policy follow‑ups during the presentation. Council member Paddock asked whether licensed contractors bear responsibility for ensuring permits are filed; Ryan answered that licensed trades generally follow permit requirements but acknowledged enforcement has been uneven. Council member Cavalieri and others suggested the decline in permit activity could reflect broader economic factors such as interest rates, labor and material costs. Ryan said the city is conducting a fee study to evaluate cost recovery; he noted some permit fees have not been updated in decades and that some commonly charged items (for example tree permits) currently have a zero fee.

Council members pressed staff on the functionality of the city’s online intake system, mybuildingpermit.com. Several councillors and Ryan described recurring user issues, including cases where residents submitted an application and received no response. “I had to replace my fence... I submitted it a couple weeks before I was having the fence replaced. Never got a response back,” one council member said. Ryan acknowledged the vendor platform is dated and said staff will bring options to improve permitting software and the development pipeline.

Ryan recommended three follow‑up items: complete the city’s fee study to align charges with staff time and peers; improve the online permitting intake and software; and restore a more active code enforcement presence so permits are sought and checked where work is plainly occurring. Council members asked staff to engage homeowners associations and property managers in outreach and to provide comparison data to peer cities as part of the fee study.

The council did not take action at the meeting but directed staff to return with proposals on software options, fee study results and enforcement approaches.

The presentation and council questions together covered permit volumes, revenue, review time, software reliability, enforcement and outreach.

Mill Creek officials said they will return with detailed recommendations and that the fee study and potential software changes are expected to be brought back to the council in coming weeks.