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ockg and <br />The revised chapter of state law sets three different deadlines depending on whether <br />a permit requires public notice or hearing, and specifies what actions are accounted <br />for in those deadlines. The new deadlines will be: <br />1. 65 days for permits that do not require public notice <br />2. 100 days for permits that require public notice but not a public hearing <br />3. 170 days for permits that require a public hearing <br />The revised law also clarifies that these deadlines do not apply to time when <br />applicants are making corrections or providing additional information, and that <br />the days counted are calendar days. in addition, governments that fail to meet a <br />specified deadline for a permit application will have to refund a portion of the <br />applicant's fees. Appendix C summarizes the changes made under the revised law. <br />This audit assessed whether selected local <br />governrne€tts met the 120-day permit review <br />timeline unbar state law <br />Across Washington, 246 local governments — 28 counties and 218 cities are <br />required to meet the 120-day deadline for permits. Rather than attempting a broad <br />look at all these jurisdictions, we selected six governments to review in detail. <br />Our goal when selecting governments was to include a good mix of cities and <br />counties on both sides of the Cascades. We chose high -growth areas with a variety <br />of population sizes and considered urban and rural designations for counties and <br />population density for cities. <br />Because the provisions of the revised law are not yet in effect, this audit compared <br />the performance of the local governments to the law in force during the 2019-2022 <br />audit period. (Appendix B describes our review of current state law and building <br />codes.) Despite changes in the law, we decided that it was still important to see how <br />governments performed against the 120-day benchmark, and to determine why <br />some permits were not processed within the deadline. We also wanted to examine <br />whether audited governments waived the 120-day deadline entirely. The issues that <br />Local governments <br />cause governments to miss the current deadline, if not addressed, may also cause <br />included in this audit <br />governments to miss the new deadline. <br />• City of Bellingham <br />This audit was designed to answer the following questions: <br />• City of Richland <br />• To what extent are local governments complying with the 120-day rule, <br />• City of Shoreline <br />including the annual reporting requirement? <br />• City of Vancouver <br />• Are local governments using processes appropriately for project permit <br />• Kittitas County <br />reviews that exceed 120 days? <br />Snohomish County <br />Growth Management Act - Background 110 <br />