To spark innovation and entrepreneurial investment, and make it easier for businesses to be sustainable, the City is pursuing opportunities to reduce red tape and encourage job growth while enhancing our commitment to the environment. Over time, some of the City’s regulations have become outdated, or redundant. Now is the time to update the regulations.

The City Council adopted Resolution 31282 in March 2011. This resolution establishes guiding principles for strengthening and growing Seattle’s economy and creating jobs. In keeping with these principles, a roundtable of business, environmental, and neighborhood leaders met to develop proposals for regulatory reform that will help restore and sustain a vibrant business environment and attract new jobs to the city; consistent with the growth management strategies in Seattle's Comprehensive Plan.

In response to the group’s recommendations for changes that will help to get people back to work and jump-start development by simplifying regulations, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is proposing amendments to the Land Use Code and Seattle’s version of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). These proposals help people weather the difficult economy in three important ways:

1. Get people back to work – encourage entrepreneurship and new business development;
2. Promote flexibility in the Land Use Code to foster innovation, improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary delay in permitting; and
3. Jumpstart new housing opportunities – encourages new investment in affordable housing.