Home Remodeling Contractors in Arlington, WA

Arlington's Community and Economic Development department reviews and issues building, land use and civil permits. Applications and payments go through the city's online Citizen Portal, and staff contact the applicant when a permit is approved or when more documents are needed.

A residential building application has to include proof of an approved Zoning Verification, the city's check that the project fits its land use rules. The city's submittal instructions recommend filing that verification first and promise a review within 72 hours. The plan review fee is due when the building application goes in and the rest at issuance, and the city states that review time depends on how complete and how complex the submittal is.

The city does not review or inspect electrical systems; that permit comes from the state Department of Labor and Industries. Inspections requested before 3:30 p.m. go on the next day's schedule, the approved plans must be on site for each visit, and any related civil or flood hazard permit is closed before the final.

The city's residential design requirements list the codes the city enforces and the local design values: a 25 pound per square foot roof snow load, seismic design category D1, climate zone 4C and footings at least 18 inches below grade for frost. Soil is assumed to bear 1,500 pounds per square foot unless a geotechnical report shows otherwise.

Every submittal carries a site plan, and on a lot that touches a flood hazard area that plan shows the floodway and design flood elevations. Sheets marked preliminary, carrying red lines or altered after the designer signed them are turned away.

Arlington's Shoreline Master Program, updated in 2019 and approved by the City Council on June 17, 2019, treats the Stillaguamish River as a shoreline of statewide significance. Its reach covers land within 200 feet of the ordinary high water mark, the floodway and 200 feet of floodplain beyond it, and associated wetlands, and the program warns that its maps only approximate that line.

An existing house inside a shoreline or critical area buffer can be remodeled as long as nothing new is built closer to the water, but spreading sideways or upland into the buffer, or adding height, needs a shoreline conditional use permit. Away from the river, streams keep standard buffers of 150 feet for Type S and F-ESA waters, 100 feet for Type F and 50 feet for smaller Np and Ns streams.

In the floodplain, new impervious surface is held to ten percent of the part of the lot inside it unless the loss is mitigated. The city's flood code gives a second story addition with no work below the base flood elevation as an example that skips the flood storage analysis, although an elevation certificate may still be required.

AMC 20.44.042, last amended by Ordinance 2023-016, allows two accessory dwelling units on any lot in a zone that permits single-family homes: one attached and one detached, two attached, or two detached. Each unit may have up to 1,000 square feet of gross floor area, and the owner does not have to live on the property.

An ADU may reach the zone's height limit, or 24 feet where the main house is shorter than that. It needs one parking space on a lot under 6,000 square feet and two on a larger lot, or none within half a mile of a major transit stop, and it connects to city water and wastewater. A detached unit stays out of the required front and side setbacks unless the side abuts an alley, and its materials, roof form and windows match the house, which staff review with the building permit.

The city charges an ADU half of the single-family transportation and park impact fees, and a detached unit may later be sold as a condominium unit. Wetlands, fish habitat, flood plains and geologic hazards on the site can limit how many units fit.

Most of Arlington's housing dates from the 1990s and 2000s. The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts 8,230 homes in the city with a median build year of 1996, and about 59 percent went up between 1990 and 2009. Around 61 percent are detached single-family houses, and roughly six in ten occupied homes are owner occupied.

About one home in nine predates 1960. In the historic town center, the city's Old Town Residential zone asks new work to stay in character with the older houses already there. In a 1990s house the work tends to be finishes and layout; an older one can bring wiring and plumbing into scope, and either way the price is itemized in writing.