Burien staff outline repeal-and-replace of Title 17 to speed subdivisions, add lot-split option

Senior planner Janice Gutzon told the Burien Planning Commission on Feb. 26 that staff will pursue a repeal-and-replace of Title 17 of the Burien Municipal Code to modernize the city’s subdivision rules and bring them into alignment with recent state statutes. “We are doing an overhaul of our Title 17,” Gutzon said, adding the existing chapter is largely unchanged since incorporation and contains provisions that no longer fit Burien’s context.

The overhaul’s stated goals are to improve clarity and usability, remove conflicting procedural language from Title 17 and consolidate it into Title 19, and adopt new subdivision types required or enabled by state law. Gutzon said staff plan to add or clarify unit-lot subdivisions (allowing internal lot rules that can enable middle housing) and a residential lot‑split process that creates a single new lot as an expedited administrative option. She noted the Subdivision Act (chapter 58.17 RCW) frames which items are mandatory and which are discretionary for the city.

Gutzon described the practical differences: short plats (small, administrative subdivisions) follow a director-level process with notice and a 30-day comment period and a 10-day appeal to the hearing examiner; larger preliminary plats (five or more lots) require hearing-examiner review and a City Council public hearing and are appealable to King County Superior Court. She said staff may propose increasing the short‑plat threshold (the packet referred to the option of raising a short plat from 4 to up to 9 lots) to allow more projects to use the faster administrative path.

Commissioners questioned how recent or pending state bills would affect the local rewrite. Gutzon said Senate Bill 5633 did not advance out of the Ways and Means committee and so does not require staff to delay the local process. She confirmed Burien does not yet fully comply with the 2025 lot‑split law referenced in the meeting and that the overhaul will address that compliance. On repeatability, staff explained the residential lot‑split is generally a one‑time administrative option for a parent lot; subsequent divisions would usually trigger the subdivision review process.

The packet presented current 2026 fee estimates: roughly $11,000 for a short plat and about $25,000 for a standard subdivision, figures Gutzon described as baseline and subject to the city’s ongoing permit‑fee analysis. Commissioners also raised practical concerns about lot shape, vehicular access and proximity to transit, and whether a newly created lot could carry an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). Gutzon said ADUs are accessory to a primary structure and a vacant newly created lot would need a primary dwelling before adding an ADU; parking exemptions near transit apply to development, not the land-division step.

On public-safety questions, staff said the fire marshal participates in development-review committee comments, and proposals must demonstrate hydrant/water availability or provide required access features such as hammerheads; sprinklers may be required where access is limited. Gutzon said detailed guardrails and criteria (for example, minimum lot developability and the number/size limits on lot splits) will be brought back for additional briefing and public review.

The commission did not take legislative action at the meeting; staff said they will begin drafting code changes and return with more detailed proposals and data, including counts of how many subdivisions the city processes annually. The commission’s next substantive discussion of short plats and subdivisions is scheduled for the March 25 meeting.