AN ORDINANCE relating to land use review decision procedures; amending Section 23.51A.002 of the Seattle Municipal Code to authorize the Director of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections to administratively waive development standards for minor expansions of sewage treatment plants subject to a Department of Ecology corrective order and finding an emergency under Seattle Municipal Code Section 25.05.880.
The Report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Agenda Item 18 Council Bill 120215. An ordinance relating to Land Use Review Decision Procedures amending sections of the Seattle Missile Code. Authorized Director of the Seattle Department of Construction Inspection to administratively waive development standards. The committee recommends the bill pass. Thank you, Jodie. Appreciate it. I'm going to hand this over to Councilmember Strauss, who is the chair of the committee, so that he can walk us through this item. Thank you. Council President. In February of this year, the Washington State Department of Ecology issued an order to King County to take actions to address repeated unauthorized bypasses of untreated wastewater from the West Point treatment facility into Puget Sound. Otherwise, raw sewage to the order requires King County to comply by the end of 2025. And one component of this order requires the county install a battery based power supply system to prevent bypass events that could be caused by disruptions to the power flow to the facility. In layperson's term, the facility needs to have a consistent power supply and even just a quick lag that is not a power outage can shut down these systems. Typically, constructing this battery system would require a lengthy city permitting process, including asking the city council to approve conditional use decisions because the park is currently in single family zoning until later today, which will be in neighborhood residential zoning. All of this introduces significant schedule risks, which could impact the county's compliance with the state order. And as you recall, the mayor initially discussed declaring an emergency order to allow the county to bypass some of these permitting steps. After discussions between the mayoral and council central staff, including Kyle Freeman of New Jersey. This legislation, which was identified as a better path, this bill before us would waive the requirement for council conditional use permit and allow SDC director to waive some development standards for the proposed expansion that is necessary to meet the Department of Ecology corrective order. All of that said, this legislation would also exempt the project from secret requirements, and this bill contains safeguards to prevent this provision from being exploited, including maximum maximum size thresholds, a requirement for construction management plan, and only applying one exemption to projects necessary to comply with the Department of Ecology Order. In committee, we heard from the leadership of the County Wastewater Treatment Division who urged us to pass this legislation before the end of the year. And I concur. Urging a yes vote. Thank you, Council President. Thank you so much, Councilmember Strauss. I do see that Councilmember Peterson has his hand up, please. Thank you. Council President. I just want to thank Councilmember Strauss for shepherding this through this committee. It's really important to see how the city lights your public utilities. King County Wastewater. Also, kudos to our central staff for coming up with a workable and rapid solution so that this issue can be put back into the court of King County Wastewater. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilman Peterson. Any other comments on agenda item 18 Council Bill 120215 hearing than will the Kirklees Council on the passage of the bill. 120215. Agenda Item 18. Lewis. Yes. Morales. Musharraf. I. Peterson. I. Strauss. Yes. Herbold. Yes. Whereas I. Council President Gonzales. I didn't favorite and opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will these affects my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Will the court please read Item 19 into the record?