No permit decisions have been made regarding the proposal. Public noticing timelines and procedures are adopted in TMC 13.05 following state law for permit processing and review.

Planning and Development Services issued a Notice of Availability for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on November 10, 2022 to solicit public comments until December 15, 2022. The City is required to respond to all comments received on the DEIS and include responses in the Final EIS (FEIS).

The FEIS will be posted on the City’s web page and a notice of decision on the associated Shoreline Permit will be mailed or emailed to all parties.  The FEIS would be appealable along with the shoreline permit – to the State Shorelines Hearings Board.

The City is required to consider the permit application in accordance with the Zoning Code, Critical Areas Code and all other development codes. This includes consideration of probable significant impacts in accordance with the SEPA regulations.

This permit was deemed complete and is “vested” to the regulations and policies in place as of July 8, 2020. Any regulations or policies adopted since that time are not applicable, which would include the Tideflats Permanent Interim Regulations.

The project is legally “vested” in the current regulations via complete land use permits, and future moratoria or land use ordinance changes will not affect it.  Future regulations, such as any new laws adopted per the Tideflats Subarea Plan, are unlikely to affect legally established activities.

State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) is part of the State Code RCW 43.21c and has implementing rules located in the WAC 197-11. The implementation includes a public process, which allows review and comment from both reviewing agencies and members of the community at large.

SEPA is a tool Washington State and local jurisdictions in Washington State use to identify, assess, and review environmental impacts for proposed projects that have probable environmental impacts at the earliest point possible. SEPA authority can be used to modify, condition, or deny a proposal when impacts are identified.

SEPA was created to identify environmental impacts of a project and modify or mitigate those impacts by placing conditions on the project. Modification can occur through project changes and prior decisions can be adopted and/or amended to address project revisions. Mitigation can be achieved through conditions that address the identified impact and must be based on adopted policy, plans, rules or regulations and must be reasonable and capable of being accomplished.

The Agency that makes the decision that SEPA should be implemented (Lead Agency) is responsible for doing the environmental analysis. Analysis includes review and commenting from other agencies and the public and issuing the final environmental determination for a proposal.

The Lead Agency does not necessarily have authority over all aspects of a project and may not be the sole permitting and inspecting authority. Other agencies may also require additional or further environmental review or analysis, monitoring and enforcement of compliance with regulations.

No, SEPA is an environmental review process used by jurisdictions in review of projects that have requested a permit to help make permitting decisions. A proposal still has to meet all building codes and regulations. SEPA conditions can be enforced when they are applied to a permit.

Usually, no, SEPA review will not stop a project from being permitted. SEPA can inform mitigation and can result in project modifications, but it is not a way to arbitrarily change or deny a proposal: any changes to a proposal must be based in adopted policy.

Once the final determination has been issued and appeal periods completed, the SEPA review is complete.

Yes, there is an appeal process. The process is available here.

Comments should be specific and mention your individual concerns. Comments that are vague or advocate for an outcome on the permit application are not useful as the City is limited on the conditions it can impose.