Council questions transparency, appeals and practical use of Port Angeles's Urban Services Standards and Guidelines

Port Angeles — City staff presented the Urban Services Standards and Guidelines (USSG), a consolidated, 300-page reference meant to summarize state and national engineering codes for local application, but several council members said the document needs clearer public-facing guidance and stronger procedural guardrails.

Director Curtin summarized the USSG as a consolidation of multiple state and federal standards "to distill them down into more easily digestible form in less than 300 pages," explaining it does not replace codes but clarifies implementation and standard details for sewer, water, stormwater, transportation, solid waste and electric utilities.

Councilmember Lindsay said the USSG can be confusing for typical property owners and raised concerns about the appeal process, noting that exceptions "may be granted upon evidence that such exceptions are in the public interest" but that the staff appeal path (director then city manager) provides limited outside review. Lindsay argued for clearer public notice of changes and more transparent guardrails so residents and smaller property owners can reasonably find and rely on the rules.

Director Curtin and other staff responded that the USSG is intended to be a living, practical tool to speed reviews while protecting long-term taxpayer interests, and said staff will continue to refine the manual with input from the builders roundtable and clean up any contradictory references to other codes.

Next steps: staff said they will continue outreach with the building community, consider clarifying frequently asked items in a user-friendly format (for example, noting when building code sections trigger engineering requirements), and return with updates as part of routine code and standard updates.