The county's Critical Areas Determination (CAD) is not a permit. It's a form you complete and submit to the county before you apply for a permit. It will help you find out if you have critical areas on your property. If you find there are critical areas mapped on your property, you'll need to hire biological professionals with the expertise in the specific critical area to prepare reports detailing the location, type and size of the critical areas and submit those reports with your completed CAD Determination. 

Quick Start

• Find the Form at Applications & Forms. Scroll down to Critical Areas Forms.
• Read the CAD Policy.
• Learn more about the Critical Areas Ordinance and about Critical Areas.

Learn More

Why CAD Determination Comes First

• The county requires a CAD Determination be submitted before you apply for a permit (in most cases) to know where development can be placed on a property and which regulations apply. See the Critical Areas Determination (CAD) requirement Policy.
• If Critical Areas are mapped on a property, the expert reports help you plan where to place your project to avoid development in or near these areas or their buffers.
• Knowing which critical areas are on a property will help identify which land-use regulations apply to the project.
• CAD reports let you, your builders and septic designers know where to place buildings, structures or a septic system on property to avoid critical areas. 
• Knowing this information before designing a project can help property owners save on costly and time-consuming redesigns.

How to see if critical areas are mapped on your property

1. Open the critical areas property information sheet. You'll need to get the property's parcel number first, by entering its address into this form.
2. Check for critical areas using the county's online Permitting map. (For reference only. Current ground conditions at a property now or at the time of application may not be fully represented on map.)
3. Visit the Permit Office Monday - Friday between 8 a.m.- 3:45 p.m. See Office Hours & Location. 
4. IMPORTANT NOTICE: There may be critical areas on a property that are not shown on county maps. Sometimes tree canopy or other things obscure the view, sometimes the land conditions change. A county staff member will confirm actual ground conditions after a CAD Determination is submitted.

What are Critical Areas

• Shorelines, wetlands, lakes, rivers, streams, flood zones, high groundwater areas, steep slopes, special habitats, riparian and marine shoreline management zones. 
• Learn more about the Critical Areas Ordinance and about Critical Areas.

When to apply for a CAD and how long it takes

• Apply before you submit a permit application.
• It's also helpful if you want the county to review your expert reports and provide a county determination about the critical areas on your property. Apply after you get your environmental reports back from your consultants. Submit your reports with a completed CAD application. 
• If you know your property has critical or regulated environmental areas, or you found these areas mapped on your property when looking at county maps, it's best to hire environmental experts to prepare environmental and critical area reports. You'll need these expert reports to help you site and design your project, complete forms, etc.  

How to Apply: Go to the Forms page and complete & submit the form

Go to the Applications & Forms page then scroll down to Critical Areas Forms. The CAD is the first option. There you'll find the forms and instructions.