Do you need a permit for a new driveway on Whidbey Island?
You need a permit for the entrance onto a county road, but the driveway itself needs no building permit. Island County Public Works issues that access permit, and it must be approved before the county issues a building permit. Digging near shorelines, steep slopes or wetlands, or past 500 cubic yards, can add a grading permit.
Which permits does a new driveway need in Island County?
In Island County, the driveway permit is really an access permit for the entrance. The county’s adopted residential code lists sidewalks and driveways as work exempt from a building permit. That exemption does not authorize work that breaks the code or other county rules.
The access permit must be approved before the county issues a building permit. The Planning Department’s address application asks for it too.
The permit questions sort out like this:
- The driveway on your land: no building permit.
- The entrance onto a county road, or a private road’s connection to one: a Public Works access permit.
- The first access onto a state highway: approval from the state Department of Transportation.
- Over 500 cubic yards of cut and fill, or any digging near a regulated shoreline, on a steep slope or in a wetland: the county grading code, which can require a grading permit.
Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley are incorporated and have their own codes. The rest of Whidbey Island, and all of Camano Island, is unincorporated Island County.
If you are building a new gravel driveway for a new house, sort out the access permit early. The building permit waits on it.
What the county access permit covers
You may hear it called a driveway access permit or a road approach permit. Island County Public Works issues it under county code chapter 12.12. It covers installing a new driveway entrance, relocating an entrance, or permitting an existing driveway entrance.
The requirement also reaches a private road that serves several lots where it connects to a county road. In both cases the approval is for county right-of-way only, the county’s strip along the road. The form says other permits may be required.
When stormwater review applies, it happens under the building permit or land use application, not the access permit.
How do you apply, and how long does it take?
The property owner applies. The current application has lines for an agent, if the owner names one, and the applicant signs it.
The application’s drawing shows the property lines, where you want the access on the property line and the county road’s name. A box asks whether you are installing a catch basin. Two visible, flat, brightly colored stakes go along the right-of-way to mark each proposed access.
Public Works takes completed applications by email, in person, by mail or through the SmartGov portal. It charges a fee, with separate residential and commercial rates. The current amount is on the county page.
The form says the County Engineer or designee will grant or deny the access within a 15-working-day period. That clock runs from a complete application. The form also warns that an engineered site plan may lengthen the review process.
The county’s earlier form shows what the review checks: archaeological sites, eagle and heron habitat, wetlands and critical drainage. In a sensitive area, the permit is held until a final determination is made. One line on the form is printed in capitals: no work shall begin until approved by the County Engineer or designee.
What conditions can the county attach to the permit?
The county’s earlier access form printed a page of permit conditions, with a box beside each one. These are conditions the county can check on a permit. They are not rules every permit carries. The conditions written on your own permit are the ones that apply.
| Condition | What it means on the ground |
|---|---|
| Driveway at least 5 feet from the property line | On a narrow lot, this can decide where the entrance goes |
| A 20 foot flat landing, grade no steeper than 2 percent unless approved in advance | The first 20 feet off the road rise or fall less than 5 inches |
| Improvements to gain and keep sight distance of 100 feet per 10 miles per hour | At 40 miles per hour, that means 400 feet of clear view, with whatever blocks it cut back and kept back |
| Culvert ends beveled | Each end of the pipe is cut at an angle |
| Culvert of double wall corrugated high density polyethylene pipe with a smooth inner wall | The permit writes in the length and diameter |
| Contact the road supervisor before asphalting or concreting | Paving the driveway waits on that contact |
| Surfaced with crushed rock, or with asphalt concrete pavement | The approach gets the surface the checked box names |
| Runoff into county drainways free of sediment and debris | Water leaving the work carries no mud or debris into the county ditch |
| Ditch cleaned of vegetation and debris | The ditch at the entrance is cleared so water moves |
The same form carries two standing terms. If the installation is not complete six months after the permit is granted, the rights it gave end. And the permit ends with a final inspection.
When does the driveway itself need a grading permit?
For the driveway itself, the question is the county grading code. A grading permit is required for all land disturbing activities, unless the chapter exempts them. Two triggers fit driveway work:
- filling and excavation adding up to more than 500 cubic yards
- clearing, filling or excavation in any quantity within 200 feet of a regulated shoreline area, on steep slopes, in a geologically hazardous area, or in wetlands or their buffers
On a job like grading a driveway onto a sloped lot, the cut and the fill both count toward the 500 cubic yards. The second trigger also covers clearing the route for a new driveway through a wetland buffer or across a steep slope.
The exemptions have a narrow doorway. They apply only outside a critical area and its buffer, and only at least 5 feet from the property boundary line. Nothing partly or wholly inside a geologically hazardous area or on a steep slope is exempt.
Filling and excavation under 500 cubic yards is exempt, with a condition. The code names grading that does not block or greatly change an existing drainage course or pattern. It also names grading that creates 5,000 square feet or less of new impervious surface. That work still has to meet the chapter 11.03 erosion and sediment control minimums.
A driveway that blocks or reroutes a drainage course is a question for the county. Critical areas add paperwork too. Every building or land use permit application needs a completed Field Indicators Worksheet, even with no known critical areas. If critical areas are mapped on or near your property, you will need a qualified environmental consultant.
What if the lot fronts a state highway?
The county access permit covers county right-of-way only, so it does not reach a state highway. The county’s address application asks for an approved access. When it is the first access onto the highway, the state Department of Transportation gives that approval. Ask the Department of Transportation about any other highway entrance before you plan the driveway.
Call 811 before the first bucket goes in
An entrance means digging at the edge of the road: the ditch, any culvert and the approach. Buried lines get marked before any of it starts.
Washington law sets the notice window. Notice goes in at least two full business days before the scheduled work to begin date. The far limit is 10 full business days ahead.
Work at the road waits for the access approval, so the start date gets set after it. The notice follows inside that window. If power and water lines along the driveway are part of the job, that trench gets marked too.
How our crew builds a driveway entrance that passes inspection
The work starts before the application. We look at the ground and the county maps with you. We check what the condition boxes care about: the distance to the property line, the view along the road, the grade at the road edge and where the water runs.
Then you get a written price. We do not give legal advice, and on an edge case the answer is to ask the county.
Once the permit is approved, we build to the conditions written on it. Our excavators cut the entrance and shape the flat landing when that box is checked. The tilt rotator trims the ditch line without moving the machine. A required culvert goes in at the length and diameter the permit states.
Base rock goes down in lifts, and the roller compactor attachment on the excavator packs each one. Crushed rock surfaces the approach when the permit calls for it. While the ground is open, we keep sediment out of the county ditch.
We lay out culverts and roadside ditch work along the whole driveway, so water has a planned path along and under the drive. Then the county does its final inspection of the entrance.