Retain an experienced Seattle real estate attorney.

If the error was by a licensed surveyor you should be able to sue the company for damages (assuming the information given to them was accurate) so get a lawyer and see if that is possible. If the city followed the appropriate regulations for notifications you will get nothing from them especially since the initial error was by your consultant instead of them. A building department has no obligation to you to discover your permit application errors, that is your responsibility.

The fact that you waited until you ran into trouble before hiring an architect indicates that you are either under capitalized for this project or you are unusually naive about the regulatory process for waterfront construction (or perhaps both).

You probably need to talk to a financial planner, your architect, and a lawyer to see if this project is feasible in your current circumstances.

If you don't have the funding to hire a lawyer to remediate this mess, then you don't have the funding to move forward with such an expensive project. I'm not unsympathetic to your plight, but waterfront construction is expensive for a reason, and if you don't have good finiancial reserves to deal with unexpected issues, then this wasn't a wise plan from the beginning. Perhaps a lawyer would help you recoup some of your investment costs while you put this lot up for sale. The good news is that waterfront lots are always in demand, so you probably can recoup that cost, even with a down market.

It will probably be difficult to get much for a so-called "waterfront shack" if the city records show that a permit for improvements was refused.

I suspect that the only feasible direction is forward with an option to sell when and if a permit for maximum improvements has been granted. Waiting could be dangerous since waterfront regulations tend to get more restrictive. I would have a qualified consultant check to see what regulation changes are being considered asap.

This is such unfortunate news and I am sorry for your huge dilemma. Dh and I moved out of KING COUNTY for some of the reasons you talk about. Their permitting tactics are unreal and so expensive; it does not surprise me at all that this has happened to you. My first reaction would be to list that property and sell as quickly as you can and take whatever you get and build ANYWHERE EXCEPT KING COUNTY! However, maybe you could get somewhere by alerting the newspaper of their practices or a tv station?
I don't know of anywhere else in the U.S. where it is soooo complicated to get building permits on top of more permits like you suggest!!! If you are a developer you won't have a problem though :) Dh and I built on the east side of WA state and had one little permit and that took about a week to get!!!! Someone needs to "go after" King County for their ridiculous practices but it will take alot of money and a "revolt" by the people to change anything!!

Live_wire-oak makes sense. You really cannot afford not to consult with an attorney.

As to the roles and responsibilities of the City of Seattle, only someone with actual knowledge of and experience dealing with that office is an a position to advise you regarding them.

FWIW, I currently own waterfront property in another state and have for a number of years. In the not too distant past, I spent a lot of time searching for waterfront in the Puget Sound area, including talking to local authorities regarding prospective properties. I did not look within the Seattle city limits, however. Based on my experience, you need a lawyer, period.

I will tell you that anytime you are looking at waterfront property, you can expect to have to deal with a myriad of state and local authorities and interest groups. If the waterfront is tidal or federally navigable, the fine hand of one or more federal agencies will be there to grace you with their presence, rules, and regs, either now or in the future.

If you do not have the time, inclination, mindset, or funds to deal with this kind of "oversight," I respectfully suggest you rethink waterfront living, especially in an environmentally sensitive political climate such as Washington state..

Many thanks to all for your feedback. Yes, I was a starry-eyed (elderly!) naive when I bought the cabin & believed I could swing a very modest home on the site. All was actually going quite well until the surveyor's staggering mistake was discovered, & I simply have no margin for this level of error, where I apparently have to start the permit process from scratch.

Obviously I'll be pursuing the surveyor for damages, but was hoping someone knew of a way short of legal help to "persuade" the building dept.to make some concessions (such as expediting the remodel permit, re-using some/all of the reports submitted for my original permit application,etc.)

If nothing else, my recent health situation has certainly helped me to place this financial setback in the proper perspective.

Wishing all of you a prosperous, blessed but mostly HEALTHY New Year!

Is 8 months a typical timeframe for a building permit on a waterfront lot in Seattle? What takes so long?
Did they flat out refuse to re-use the original reports?

In my very limited experience with building permit offices in Texas, while they aren't exactly friendly, once their rules and regulations are satisfied, they hand out the permit the same day.

Is the surveyor's mistake one that masked a serious problem with the site, one that violates a strict development rule?