Kitsap County, WA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

The footnote sits in KCC Chapter 17.420, the table of density and dimension standards that governs unincorporated Kitsap County's rural, resource and urban residential zones. Footnote 5 to § 17.420.060 singles out Kingston, an unincorporated North Kitsap community, and requires that all development inside its downtown area comply with the separately adopted Design Standards for the Community of Kingston, which the code codifies as Chapter 17.700, Appendix C1, rather than printing the design criteria in the main body of Title 17. Kitsap County repeats this structure for its other unincorporated urban center: throughout the allowed-use standards of Chapter 17.415, sections covering uses such as auto sales, drinking establishments and entertainment facilities cross-reference the Silverdale Design Standards codified at Chapter 17.700, Appendix C3, and bar or restrict those uses within the Waaga Way Town Center area unless the applicant meets that design document.

Both appendices function as the county's downtown design guides: a builder in Kingston or Silverdale must satisfy the underlying zone's density and dimension table in §§ 17.420.052 through 17.420.058 and the applicable appendix before the Department of Community Development will approve a land use or building permit. Because Kitsap County's zoning authority under Title 17 reaches only the unincorporated area, these design standards never apply inside the incorporated cities of Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo or Bainbridge Island, each of which administers its own separate design or downtown code outside county jurisdiction.