Drafter
Clerk 10/10/2007
title
AN ORDINANCE relating to the functioning of the department of development and environmental services in regards to the setting of permit fees, publication of administrative rules, administration of fee waivers, establishment of fixed fees in regards to financial guarantees and establishment of a permit fee technical advisory body; amending Ordinance 14683, Section 4, and K.C.C. 27.02.025, Ordinance 10662, Section 44, and K.C.C. 27.02.030 and Ordinance 10662, Section 45, as amended, and K.C.C. 27.02.040 and adding new sections to K.C.C. chapter 27.02.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. A department of development and environmental services ("DDES") Fee Study was conducted in 1994, as a follow-up to the DDES 1993 Fee Structure Analysis, which examined nearly one year's permit services and made comparisons between costs of services and the fees generated. The study concluded goals could only be achieved through additional external support to the annual financing of DDES operations.
B. The 1996 Final Report of DDES Restructuring Task Force recommended that permit activities should recover all of their direct and indirect costs and that all nonbillable general governmental services be financed by current expense funds. The task force also recommended that each type of permit recover its associated direct and indirect costs, thereby ending subsidy of one permit type from revenue of another.
C. The 1996 DDES review of a proposal to split the building services division was drafted in response to Ordinance 11955, which combined Metro into King County and included a provision requiring that DDES divide the building services division into two divisions. Rather than adopt the proposed split of the division, DDES recommended continuing its efforts at regulatory review and reinventing the permit process as the best alternatives for improving efficiency and customer service and for ac...
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