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City building-permit office reports steady multifamily pipeline, 21 EV charging sites and small fee adjustments
Summary
City staff reported continued multifamily activity, 550 approved housing units with 1,300 more in review, 21 EV charging-site permit applications and small permit-fee corrections during the committee’s March permitting update.
A city staff member gave the Urban Experience Committee an update on building-permit activity on March (date not specified), reporting continued strength in multifamily development, several efficiency steps in the permitting system and minor fee corrections the department is implementing.
The staff member identified as Tammy said the department has issued about $17,450,000 in permits so far this month, “mainly commercial and more multifamily projects, residential remodels,” and noted there are 21 EV-charging-site permit applications active across the city, including at Gonzaga University properties. She said the department has 550 housing units approved and roughly 1,300 units in plan review.
Why it matters: The presentation shows the city’s development pipeline remains focused on multifamily projects even as single-family permit activity declines, a trend that officials and developers in the meeting tied to broader national shifts in single-family construction.
Staff said permit applications were down slightly compared with an earlier winter surge and attributed the month-to-month change largely to seasonal construction cycles. The department also described ongoing work to update the Acela permitting system; staff said a developer will be on-site on upcoming dates to work through more complicated workflow cases in person. The department has also filled two positions: an elevator inspector and a permit technician, intended to reduce backlogs.
On fees, the staff member said council adopted a package of fee changes earlier and that plugging the new fees into the permitting system revealed some duplicate line items and a few small errors. The department is combining duplicate fees, correcting a short-term-rental fee that had been entered incorrectly, fixing spelling and unit-of-measure clarifications and lowering some fixture fees by a dollar after contractor input.
Committee members asked whether the recent training that pulled building reviewers out of normal review work had created coverage gaps; staff said training was staggered so the office maintained coverage. A council member asked how many predevelopment inquiries fall completely away before permitting; Tammy estimated only 3–4% of residential predevelopment projects do not move forward, with commercial projects more likely to drop.
Closing note: Staff emphasized that several larger projects are moving forward or in plan review — named projects include Vets on Lacey, Anna’s Homes and conversions such as the Wharton Building downtown — and that the department will continue work to streamline permit workflows and increase transparency for applicants.
