CCITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE relating to historic preservation review procedures; amending and making permanent certain temporary procedures; amending Sections 23.66.030, 25.12.320, 25.12.720, 25.16.100, 25.20.090, 25.21.110, 25.22.110, 25.24.070, and 25.30.090 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
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WHEREAS, on March 3, 2020, Mayor Durkan issued a Proclamation of Civil Emergency for the City of Seattle based on the confirmed spread of COVID-19 in King County and resulting deaths; and
WHEREAS, on April 27, 2020, the Seattle City Council adopted Ordinance 126072, which allowed certain land use applications related to historic properties to be handled administratively and approved by the City's Historic Preservation Officer; and
WHEREAS, Ordinance 126072 was effective for a limited time; and
WHEREAS, on October 5, 2020, the Seattle City Council adopted Ordinance 126188, which extended many of the provisions established in Ordinance 126072 until 60 days after the termination of the Proclamation of Civil Emergency issued by Mayor Durkan; and
WHEREAS, due to the termination of the Proclamation of the Civil Emergency, Ordinance 126188 will not be effective when this ordinance becomes effective; and
WHEREAS, in October 2021, the Department of Neighborhoods hired Broadview Planning to collect and assess local community responses to the temporary administrative review provisions that apply to the City's Historic Preservation Program; and
WHEREAS, Broadview Planning's findings generally indicated strong support for allowing many of the temporary administrative review provisions to become permanent; and
WHEREAS, the community responses collected by Broadview Planning also revealed support for taking a more refined approach to the application of administrative review within the City's historic districts, which vary in scale and are each subject to a unique regulatory framework; and
WHEREAS, the Department of...
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