Submit SDCI construction permit application

How the application flows

1. Pre-application through the Seattle Services Portal. The city assigns a record number and may flag the project for a planner site visit.
2. Intake appointment booking. This is the meeting where SDCI formally takes in your full drawings. The next available appointment is often 2 to 4 months out — book it the day you get your record number.
3. Intake. SDCI confirms the submittal is complete (right number of sheets, right disciplines, fees paid).
4. Review. Multi-discipline review across zoning, structural, energy, drainage, sometimes ECA, sometimes arborist. First review comments typically arrive 4–8 weeks after intake.

What you submit

• Stamped survey
• Site plan with tree inventory and protection plan
• Architectural set (plans, elevations, sections, details)
• Structural set (stamped)
• Civil / stormwater (as applicable)
• Energy code forms
• Geotech report (if ECA)
• Cover sheet, code data, address documents

Your designer drives the submittal. Your job is to fund the fees and review what's being filed.

Fees in 2026

SDCI's 2026 fee schedule raised construction and master use permit fees by 18% over 2025 (most other fees rose 6.5%). For a typical 500 sq ft DADU:

• Combined plan-review and permit fee: about $3,453.
• Hourly rate for review beyond what the base fee covers: $292/hr.
• Sub-permits (electrical, plumbing, side sewer) are billed separately by their respective agencies.

Larger DADUs scale up — fees track construction value.

Pre-approved plans path

If you're using a pre-approved DADU plan, the SDCI fast track can compress intake-to-issue from the standard 2-4-month intake queue + 4-8-week first-review cycle down to roughly 2-6 weeks total. Site-specific items (zoning, drainage, ECA) still get reviewed; the architectural review is largely waived because SDCI already approved the plan set. The biggest variable is still your designer's familiarity with current SDCI expectations.

What to do right now (in parallel)

• File the SCL service application (step 3.2) at the same time, not after.
• File the SPU side sewer permit (step 3.3) once schematic and civil are in.
• File the King County plumbing permit (step 3.4).

These four permit tracks run on independent clocks and don't gate each other. Filing them in parallel in the same week is what compresses the wall-clock for the whole phase.