Under the Shoreline Management Act, Ecology must review all the Shoreline
"Conditional Use" and "Variance" permits issued by local governments
before deciding to approve, condition, or deny them.
(Ecology also reviews the more common substantial development
permits, but does not have direct approval authority over those.)
Under the SMA local governments are required to include provisions for authorizing uses and developments by conditional use permits. The purpose of a conditional use permit is to allow greater flexibility in the application of the shoreline master program. In authorizing a conditional use, special conditions may be attached to the permit by local government or Ecology to prevent undesirable effects of the proposed use and/or to assure consistency of the project with the SMA and the local shoreline master program. Rules defining the criteria for review of CUPs are found in WAC 173-27-160 (link to Code Reviser's Page).
The SMA authorizes deviation from specific bulk, dimensional, or performance standards in local shoreline master programs through shoreline variance permits. Variance permits are only granted "where there are extraordinary circumstances relating to the physical character or configuration of property such that the strict implementation of the master program will impose unnecessary hardships on the applicant or thwart the policies set forth in the SMA." Rules defining the criteria for review of variances are found in WAC 173-27-170 (link to Code Reviser's Page).