County needs to fix permitting process

Published 12:44 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I have been a contractor on Vashon for 36 years. Due to the frustration of dealing with the permitting process, we started making owners or architects obtain any permits years ago.

This past spring I decided to put a piece of property on the market and was told I should get a Critical Areas Designation prior to selling it. On June 2, I applied for this designation and paid a $1,210 fee. On Sept. 9 (yes that is over four months later), I received a letter saying they were busy and that I needed to hire a wetland specialist and have him write a report to give them. Two weeks and $600 later, the specialist sent them a report saying there were no wetlands.

King County Executive Dow Constantine needs to please explain what in the hell is going on with the permitting agency. When we are required to get something like that designation prior to getting a building permit, they should at least be able to provide it in a reasonable time. Maybe Constantine could also explain why it would cost so much. If a private company pulled that kind of crap, King County would be all over them. Does this make you wonder why we get so many requests from homeowners to do work without a permit?

I think King County’s permitting process is broken and needs a major overhaul. At least they removed “services” from the end of their name because the only service we seem to be getting from them is the same one we could get from a proctologist for a lot less money.

— Ed Palmer