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Planning commission backs design-review code changes to comply with House Bill 1293
Summary
The commission voted to recommend KCC chapter 92 and related design-guideline amendments to council to conform local design-review procedures to House Bill 1293; staff said changes convert many guidelines to regulations, reduce some glazing requirements to 60% and move some review from the Design Review Board to administrative planning review with expanded noticing.
At a public hearing the Planning Commission reviewed staff-proposed amendments to the city’s design-review regulations and recommended forwarding the package to City Council.
Senior planner Tony Levitt framed the code changes as responses to recent state law, citing House Bill 1293 and a related RCW provision. He said the state requires cities to apply clear-and-objective regulations to exterior design, conduct design review concurrently with permit review and limit design-review proceedings to a single public meeting. To conform, staff proposes converting many existing design guidelines into regulations, establishing administrative design-review application types (ADR1 and ADR2), and retaining an optional alternative compliance path reviewed by the Design Review Board.
Levill (Tony Levitt) described several substantive edits: lowering an existing pedestrian-facade glazing requirement from 75% down to 60% (with artwork allowed as an approved treatment), codifying when planning officials may approve cantilevers over sidewalks if the city requires dedication or easement for sidewalk improvements, and offering five modulation/articulation options (including upper-story setbacks and visual roofline variations) that applicants may choose to satisfy facade standards. Staff said changes would preserve the intent of existing guidelines while adding clearer regulatory text and that proposed ADR1 projects will continue to receive public notice (expanded to residents within 300 feet).
Resident Liz Hunt spoke in public comment, praising staff work but warning that shifting decisions from the Design Review Board to planning staff risks making design decisions "opaquely behind closed doors" rather than leaving them subject to public, board-level review. Commissioners and staff responded that many changes are state-directed, and that the ADR process includes public noticing and a council-requested one-year check-in on Design Review Board use and possible future tweaks.
After deliberation Commissioner Erin Jacobson moved that the commission recommend the proposed amendments to KCC chapter 92 (miscellaneous amendments), conversion of design guidelines for pedestrian-oriented business districts, the Totem Lake and Yarrow Bay business district guideline updates, the Northeast 85th Street station subarea plan guidelines, and changes to residential design guidelines. Commissioner Julia Nolan seconded; the motion passed by voice vote. The recommendation will be scheduled for council consideration in January.
Next steps: staff will forward the commission’s recommendation to council and plans to return with consolidated guideline documents and a one-year usage report on the Design Review Board.
