Jefferson County’s lengthy permit process is about to get an upgrade that will consider requests in a more timely manner, according to the county’s Director of Community Development.

“It’s already much better now than it was even a few months ago,” said Josh Peters, who has led the agency since June 2023.

 “We want to do better, so people know that they can come to us and they’ll get clear-cut, consistent answers. The idea that getting a permit takes way too long isn’t true anymore."

This year Peters hopes the permit process will move faster, where the initial work on a permit begins before the applicant even leaves the office.

 “I want to reduce to the point where someone can come in the door and file a permit and we'll actually start looking at it right away,” he said.

The Jefferson County Department of Community Development manages permitting and land use outside of Port Townsend city limits. Port Townsend has its own planning and permitting department.

Permit approval paused after a development moratorium adopted by the Board in the fall of 2021 that lasted until the fall of 2022.

Along with pandemic challenges, the agency was taxed by resignations that reduced staff levels significantly. This resulted in a loss of institutional memory. A troublesome software upgrade provided another obstacle.

“It was a perfect storm and our morale was low,” Peters said. “The customers were angry, and I didn’t blame them.”

After that time, staff attacked the backlog and hacked it down to a reasonable level with persistence from the team and the help of outside consultants.

One of the agency’s challenges is attributable to human behavior, Peters said.

“Not everybody agrees with the idea that they need a permit for anything,” he said. “Sometimes we have to tell people news they don't like to hear. But the news that we are telling them is in the best interest of the whole community and its safety.”

DCD employs about 20 people covering administrative services, fire regulation, code compliance, and long-range planning. According to its website, the agency is  a one-stop-shop for all building permits, code enforcement, land use (development review), and long-range planning.

While it makes policy for the county, it must conform to myriad state regulations, including those covering density, wetlands, and waterways, interpreting those rules to fit the local landscape. Additionally, it must provide updates to the county’s comprehensive plan, where a periodic review is required every ten years in order to ascertain what, if anything, needs to be revised to remain in accordance with state law. The next update is scheduled for 2025, but the process has already begun.

While managing future development, the DCD’s goal is to preserve the characteristics that make Jefferson County a good place to live. Peters characterizes this challenge as a “balancing act.”  

“We can set the vision for our community,” Peters said. “While we are encouraging development and economic opportunity, we’re still preserving what makes this place wonderful and the rural character we have here.”

Community development is tied to the creation of new housing, the shortage of which has evolved into a local crisis. Peters said that no single county department can fully address this issue, but DCD is part of the puzzle.

This circles back to making the permit process easier, while providing more flexible options.

“We want to be part of the solution,” Peters said. “We need to operate between the constraints of the law and the vision we have for the county. We can push the envelope on how far we can take certain regulations, to maintain that balance between protecting what we have and providing for opportunity.”

This includes accommodating workforce housing, quadruple occupancies, and boarding houses, among other options.

The Port Hadlock Wastewater System, a $35 million project expected to become operational in late 2025, has the ability to lower the temperature of the housing shortage. This is predominantly a Public Works project. But DCD will manage the area’s development and shepherd its evolution into an Urban Growth Area.

“[The project] will be a game changer for housing,” Peters said. “We will achieve the urban services that are needed to support the density.”

He pointed out that current regulations will need reconfiguration, modernizing them to accommodate new density levels.

 “We've been talking with developers who would be willing to provide housing types and various topologies within the housing spectrum, so that different income groups could afford different things. And so we want to make sure that regulations still need to do what they need to do to protect the community's interests, but also provide for flexibility and provide things that basically developers can work with.”

The obstacles, Peters said, are now opportunities.

Peters, 54, has lived in Port Townsend since 2000, and followed a winding path to the DCD director’s chair. He applied for the position in 2011 to replace longtime agency head Al Scalf, but came in second to eventual hire Carl Smith.

Aside from the Jefferson County DCD and the Public Works Department, he has worked for King County, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and as a Peace Corps volunteer.

As a result, Peters characterizes himself as a jack of all trades.

“I believe that the variety of posts I’ve held has given me a fairly comprehensive viewpoint about how things work in Washington State,” he said. “I don’t claim any expertise in a particular discipline, but I know something about all the different components and know how everything works together.”

DCD has a robust web page, accessible at www.co.jefferson.wa.us/260/Community-Development.

Their office, located at 621 Sheridan Street, adjacent to QFC in Port Townsend, is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, and from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.