4-8-2024_PW SS Briefings (3) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Snohomish County Planning and Development Services March 27,2024 3000 Rockefeller Ave.,M15 604 State Auditor Pat McCarthy Everett,WA 98201-4046 (425)388-3311 Office of the Washington State Auditor www.snoco.org Olympia,WA 98504 Dave Somers County Executive Dear Auditor McCarthy, On behalf of Snohomish County,thank you for the performance audit of the Growth Management Act:County and city compliance with the state's 120-day permitting requirement. We appreciate how your audit team worked with us and the other jurisdictions to provide a comprehensive report on the requirements,audit findings,and challenges faced by local jurisdictions.Through the audit we received clarification and interpretation of the requirements which we previously did not have. Permitting is very important to Snohomish County.We have reviewed the report and recommendations,and we want you to know we are working very hard to overcome the challenges we face in permitting development in our county.The challenges of approving permits within established time frames are significant.Some of these include the following: ■ We are currently experiencing a severe staffing shortage of engineers who are a critical component of our permit review process.As such,we have hired consultants to help us with the backlog of permits under review. + The increasing complexity of land use regulations and building codes has over the years negatively impacted our time frames.Because reviews are taking longer than they used to,we may need to hire more staff.We are conducting a thorough staffing analysis as part of our 2025-2026 biennial budget development. . q We are identifying key issues that are critical to our success and that will help us meet the new time frames established in Senate Bill 5290.We are participating in the Department of Commerce's Permit Review Work Group to better understand all the issues related to the new requirements,share our experiences,and provide feedback to the legislature. One reason our time frames are longer than other jurisdictions,and why we used waivers(which we thought were allowed),is because of our customer service values.We have tried to work with applicants as long as it takes to achieve full compliance with county and state regulations,ratherthan deny their y application.If several rounds of review are required on a project,it will take longer to reach a decision. We are exploring ways to still live up to our core values and also meet time frames. + We are reviewing our permit tracking system and making improvements to streamline the intake and processing of electronic submittals. Once again,thank you for team's work on this audit.We recognize we have room for improvement,and we are taking specific and appropriate steps to achieve the legislature's goals for improving permit review time frames. Sincerely, Michael McCrary Director,Planning and Development Services Grc>v+th Mapagemn nl Act — Agency Respons: J 47