Form revised: December 6, 2011

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	CBO Analyst/Phone:
Seattle Department of Transportation	Angela Steel/684-5967	Rebecca Guerra/684-5339

Legislation Title:

AN ORDINANCE relating to term permits for sustainable building features that support sustainable building practices in public places; amending the current Seattle Department of Transportation Street Use Fee Schedule, Attachment A to Ordinance 123477, as amended by Ordinances 123600, 123611, 123659, and 123485 as amended by Ordinance 123585 by adding a new term permit use to the term permit fee methodology.

Summary of the Legislation:

This legislation amends the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) Street Use Fee Schedule by adding a new term permit use code for sustainable building features to the existing term permit fee methodology. The sustainable building features are components of buildings or the development area identified as being necessary to achieve the Living Building Challenge, such as photovoltaic arrays, wind generators, or cisterns.

When property owners who seek to construct buildings to meet the City’s Living Building Pilot Program request the use of a public place for sustainable building features, the current term permit fee methodology does not adequately anticipate, nor provide an appropriate fee, for such features in a public place.

In order to qualify for this new sustainable building features term permit use code, the development must be participating in the City’s Living Building Pilot Program, be capable of achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification, or both.

Background:

By Ordinance 123206, the City established a Living Building Pilot Program in conjunction with the Living Building Challenge developed by the International Living Building Institute to recognize developments that achieve an advanced level of sustainability by challenging building owners, architects, design professionals, engineers, and contractors to build well-designed, environmentally-sound, and self-sustaining buildings that generate all of their own energy with renewable resources, that capture and treat all of the water needed, and that use resources efficiently.

By Ordinance 123485, as amended by Ordinance 123585, the City authorized SDOT to administer a term permit fee methodology for long-term uses of the right-of-way. This methodology assessed annual fees by calculating the abutting parcel’s King County tax assessed land value, the permitted use area, the rate of return, and the ‘degree of alienation’ (DA). The DA is the degree of impact on the public, utilities, right-of-way, and other potential uses of the right-of-way based on City policy, which rates were established by Ordinance 123485, as amended by Ordinance 123585, Table A. Currently Table A, details the factor rates of eleven different DAs for long-term uses of the public place (like pedestrian tunnels with a 25% DA, public plazas with a 10% DA, and semi-public skybridges with a 75% DA).

Please check one of the following:

___X This legislation does not have any financial implications.

Although this legislation does not accept or appropriate funds, SDOT will assess this term permit fee methodology with other term permit ordinances that may qualify for this new sustainable building feature use code.

Other Implications:

a) Does the legislation have indirect financial implications, or long-term implications?

No.

b) What is the financial cost of not implementing the legislation?

None.

c) Does this legislation affect any departments besides the originating department?

No.

d) What are the possible alternatives to the legislation that could achieve the same or similar objectives? None.

e) Is a public hearing required for this legislation?

No.

f) Is publication of notice with The Daily Journal of Commerce and/or The Seattle Times required for this legislation?

No.

g) Does this legislation affect a piece of property?

No.

h) Other Issues:

N/A

List attachments to the fiscal note below: N/A