City of Leavenworth May Place Bonds on Building Permits Due to Low Response Rate

Leavenworth’s Development Services Department may require a bond be placed on building permits after seeing a 30% response rate on finalized permits. 

The city debuted their online permit tracking system in 2020 and just recently started accepting applications, including a new bond for Design Review Permits. They currently have a backlog of building permits, many failing to call for a final inspection. 

“It's very typical for building permits to not get finalized,” Development Services Manager Lilith Vespier explained. “Once people complete the work, they don't think it's a big deal, they don't finalize it, they sell the house, and maybe they have an inspector ask for the final documents and it just sits in a drawer.” 

Vespier said that her department has already emailed Design Review Permit applicants a notice of a required bond, and sent letters to applicants grandfathered into their permit system.

Bond rates range from $500-1000 and will be based on a cost estimate for uncompleted work on a project, then multiplied by 150% for a one-year bond and 200% for a two-year bond. 

The bond will be removed once the building permit process is completed.

If this bond program proves to be successful, Development Services will attempt to carry this bond over to other building permits.