Proposed Code Change Would Eliminate Annual MUP Renewals

SEATTLE-A proposed change to the city’s Master Use Permit process would eliminate the need for annual MUP renewals, which require that any the project be revised to account for any change to the land use code during the year. Instead, the vesting of development rights would be extended to match the five-year deadline for obtaining a building permit following MUP approval. A public hearing on the proposed legislation is scheduled before the Seattle City Council’s Land Use Committee on Tuesday, March 4.

Mike Podowski, a city supervisor for policy and code development, tells GlobeSt.com that the annual renewal made sense when the MUP process was established in the mid 1980s because there had been significant changes to the land use code. “Over the last five years, the types of changes to the land use code have been small such that the process no longer serves a valuable purpose; we’re at a totally different point in the city’s evolution,” says Podowski. “It’s something we’ve known for a few years could use some adjustment, but in this down economy there became a more acute need to simplify and take out some of the unnecessary hurdles.”

Podowski says if the legislation is passed out of committee it goes onto the full city council, where it would need majority approval. As the three council members on the committee are believed to be for such a change, they would need to convince only two others on the nine-member council to push it through.