Permit Processing Related News

Reduced Fire Prevention Counter Support
Fire Prevention staff members will be attending training on several Mondays starting in June and running into October. There will bo no Fire Prevention staff available to the Development Center staff or customers during the training. More information and the training schedule can be found here.

2007 Development Center Lobby Wait Study
Zucker Systems recently presented the final Lobby Wait Study to the Performance Audit Committee. A copy of the report can be found here.

Planning and Land Services Permit In-Take Workshops are now available.
Join us for a 'brown-bag lunch' meeting to learn about the new permit in-take process, how to build a quality permit package and other topics that can help you with your building and land use project.
When: 1st Tuesday of each month, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Where: Pierce County Annex, Conference Room A, 2401 S. 35th Street, Tacoma WA
What: Current Agenda

New Development Engineering Handout
Development Engineering has a new handout addressing how punch lists are coded and expediting bonding to obtain Final Plat. Click here for more information.

Forest Practice Permit
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently approved the transfer of jurisdiction over Class IV-General forest practices permits to Pierce County, with an effective date of March 1, 2007. Click here to view the Forest Practice Notice.

Traffic Impact Fees
Pierce County recently adopted a Traffic Impact Fee program with an effective date of January 1, 2007. Click here to view the Industry Notice.

August/September 2006
On September 18, 2006, Pierce County Planning and Land Services will launch a new process for taking in applications for residential building permits. Workshops will be held to introduce the new process on August 30th and September 8th. Here are links to the announcement, workshop outline and checklist (site plan example and other handouts can be found here).

November 2005
Development Engineering has a new policy regarding the review of existing road approaches (drivways). It can be found here.

Local Planning Related News

June 2008
Questions and Answers (Q & A) and Online Resources for the Historic Preservation Grant Applicants are available here. Deadline for submitting questions regarding the grant application is 3 p.m., Wednesday, July 2.

April 2008
The Pierce County Historic Preservation Grant Application Guidelines and Application Form - Avaialble in either Microsoft Word or as an Adobe PDF
Pierce County announces the availability of the Pierce County Historic Preservation Grant Fund 2008 in the amount of $200,000. The 2008 grant fund was made available through the County Council appropriation. Historic Preservation or History-related grant applications for grant fund requests of minimum $2,000 and maximum $25,000 will be accepted starting on May 1, 2008 until 4:30 p.m., July 7, 2008. Matching funds must be provided by the applicants. Grant project activities must take place in Pierce County and completed by September 15, 2009 in order to qualify. Historic property owners, nonprofit organizations and public agencies are eligible applicants for grant. Please email at jpark@co.pierce.wa.us or telephone (253) 798-2783 for information about the grant or to obtain hard copy of the grant application guidelines and application form. From mid-May to early June 2008, the grant workshops will be held at different locations around Pierce County to provide guidance to interested applicants. Please check back at this website for announcements for the upcoming grant workshop dates and locations.

Click here to view a list of the 2008 Pierce County Historic Preservation Grant Workshops. Two evening grant workshops (6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) are added to the previously scheduled grant workshops: Tuesday, June 3, Olympic Room, Main Library, Tacoma Public Library; June 4, Meeting Room, Pierce County Library System's Processing and Administration Center in the Summit Area.

December 2007
Shoreline Master Program Update Open House Meetings December 3rd and 4th, 2007. The DRAFT Inventory and Characterization Report can be found here.

September 2007
2007 Executive Draft Capital Facilities Plan
Pierce County's 2007 Executive Draft Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) Amendments to Comprehensive Plan is now ready and is undergoing Planning Commission review process. Planning Commission is holding a meeting on Tuesday, September 25, at 8:30 a.m. in the Public Meeting Room, Public Services Building, 2401 South 35th Street, Tacoma.

Planning Commission will issue its recommendations to the County Council after the hearing is held. CFP in the PDF format is posted on this website. Electronic copies of CFP on CD's are available at the Advance Planning Division Office. Printed copies will be distributed to local libraries within the Pierce County Library System.

Please contact Julia Airyang Park, Senior Planner, Advance Planning Division, Pierce County Planning and Land Services Department at (253) 798-2783 or jpark@co.pierce.wa.us if you have any questions or need information on CFP.

A series of hearings at the County Council are scheduled for review of the CFP. Please contact Hugh Taylor, Senior Legislative Analyst, Pierce County Council, at (253) 798-3665 or Denise Johnson, Clerk of the Council, at (253) 798-6065, for more detailed information on hearings at the County Council.

2007 Pierce County Buildable Lands Report is now available.
The successful completion of this document is representative of on-going coordination and cooperation efforts between Pierce County and all of its cities and towns in monitoring development activities and analyzing the residential and employment capacity of designated urban areas in Pierce County.

The initial 2002 Report and the 2007 Report and associated appendices are available for viewing on-line. The report and associated appendices can also be obtained on compact disk by calling Pierce County Planning and Land Services at 253-798-2785.

March 2007
Housing Affordability
The Final Report and Recommendations from the Pierce County Housing Affordability Task Force regarding Housing Affordability in Pierce County has been completed.