Today was super exciting and marks a critical milestone for us…we submitted our first permit today (and on my birthday)!!  I arrived at King County at 7:30 am in Snoqualmie and after a 45 minute wait I finally was able to talk with a rep about our permit – Critical Areas Designation (CAD).

A few months back if you went to King County you’d have to put your name on a sign-in sheet on a clipboard and wait your turn.  Now you go to straight to the front desk and they have a computerized check-in system.   And you can track how far down the list you are on a large flat screen monitor.  The process is much more tech savvy and you can monitor your wait instead of having to pop up and read a clipboard if you were wondering how long your wait was.

So…a 45 minute wait.  There was one person in front of me when I arrived and there was only one KC staff member there to help with Critical Areas.  45 minutes later though another staff member arrived and was able to help me.  I had all of my documentation ready to be reviewed.  The CAD process requires a quick two page form to be filled out, and if you have any supporting information that should be attached as well.  We turned in the application as well as a copy of our existing conditions site plan (survey), a copy of our wetland delineation concurrency letter (that we paid Altmann Oliver to write last fall), the original wetland + buffer delineation from 2005, and an existing wetland report that we found in archived county records.  Oh, and I forgot – the $1,655 check!  Needless to say – we were much more prepared than some that turn in the same permit.

Detailed plan of our property including the wetland + buffers

Letter confirming our wetland delineation & documented wetland boundary is still current

Wetland + Buffer plan from 2005

The staff member quickly flipped through all of our research/documentation and said that we were extremely prepared.  And all of that should actually pay off.  The County’s review timeframe can be as high as 4 months.  Luckily, at this time it’s only about 2-3 months.  But since our documentation included everything that they could ever want to know about our property, it should be a lot faster than that.  Apparently, the County staff triage the applications, and of course do the easy ones first.  Since we provided so much information, ours is expected to go pretty quickly.

So, what’s the purpose of a CAD and why do we need it?  Our property has a wetland (aka pond) on the back of the property.  This is classified as an environmentally sensitive area and it’s the County’s responsibility to make sure that they’re maintained in their native vegetation (to allow for wildlife to live and plant species to thrive).  Associated with a wetland is a buffer (or distance around a wetland) that can’t be disturbed.  The CAD tells the property owner (and document it with the County) what classification of the wetland that exists and what the associated wetland buffer is.

We already know that we have a class 1 wetland (the most severe type) because we have a pond with animal habitats (beavers) living in it.  And the associated buffer is 225-feet.  So, the point of the CAD is to document it with the County and to see what we’ll be able to do with our property.  Back in 2005, the property was cleared and at that time the buffer distance was only 100-feet.  Now, since the buffer has increased to 225-feet we want to be able to use that extra 125-foot space that’s already been cleared as a back yard.  Ideally we’d like to regrade it, and create a yard.

We’ll see how it goes!  Crossing our fingers though!