Changes to Washington County Land Use and Transportation Customer Reception Hours at Public Services Building Effective October 3

In response to additional staffing reductions in our Development Services division, effective Monday, October 3 customer reception hours at the Washington County Department of Land Use and Transportation (LUT) offices on the 3rd floor of the Public Services Building (155 N First Avenue, Suite 350, Hillsboro) will change to the following schedule:

These LUT divisions handle building permits, development applications, plats, code compliance, long range planning, and other land use services. The schedule above applies only to walk-in customer reception hours in the LUT offices on the 3rd floor of the Public Services Building. Staff in these LUT divisions will be available to respond to phone calls, e-mails and faxes Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.

“This was a difficult decision, but necessary in response to reduced Development Services staffing levels. We acknowledge this may affect many of our LUT customers and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience,” said Andrew Singelakis, Director of Land Use and Transportation.

LUT divisions at the Walnut Street Center (1400 SW Walnut St, Hillsboro), which handle road-related services, are NOT affected by this change. No other County departments are affected by this change.

Background:
The Development Services division is funded almost exclusively by fees for building permits and development reviews. Faced with ongoing weakness in the development sector, we have been forced to reduce Development Services staffing levels by nearly 60 percent since 2008. This has required us to rethink all aspects of our operations as we focus on providing essential services with reduced resources. The decision to reduce hours that LUT staff at the Public Services Building are available to walk-in customers is consistent with actions taken by other jurisdictions in the metro area.

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