Background:

Growth Management Act - Introduction.

The Growth Management Act (GMA) is the comprehensive land use planning framework for counties and cities in Washington. Originally enacted in 1990 and 1991, the GMA establishes land use designation and environmental protection requirements for all Washington counties and cities, and a significantly wider array of planning duties for the 29 counties and the cities within that are obligated by population-based criteria or choice to satisfy all planning requirements of the GMA.

The GMA directs planning jurisdictions (jurisdictions that fully plan under the GMA) to adopt internally consistent comprehensive land use plans that are generalized, coordinated land use policy statements of the governing body. Comprehensive plans must include specific planning elements, each of which is a subset of a comprehensive plan. Planning jurisdictions must implement comprehensive plans through locally adopted development regulations that conform to the plan.

The GMA also establishes 14 planning goals in a nonprioritized list that must be used exclusively for guiding the development and adoption of comprehensive plans and development regulations. Examples of the topics addressed by the planning goals include:

urban growth – encourage development in urban areas where adequate public facilities and services exist or can be provided in an efficient manner;
reduce sprawl – reduce the inappropriate conversion of undeveloped land into sprawling, low-density development; and
citizen participation and coordination – encourage the involvement of citizens in the planning process and ensure coordination between communities and jurisdictions to reconcile conflicts.

Public Participation Requirements.

In addition to the citizen participation and coordination goal of the GMA, each planning jurisdiction is required to establish and broadly disseminate to the public a public participation program that identifies procedures providing for early and continuous public participation in the development and amendment of comprehensive plans and development regulations. The procedures are required to satisfy several requirements, including providing for: broad dissemination of proposals and alternatives; opportunities for written comments; and considerations of and responses to public comments.

The GMA also specifies that public participation requirements must include procedures that are reasonably calculated to provide notice of proposed amendments to comprehensive plans and development regulations to:

property owners and other affected and interested individuals;
tribes;
government agencies;
businesses;
school districts; and
organizations.

Examples of reasonable notice provisions are as specified in statute and include:

posting the property for site-specific proposals;
publishing notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, city, or general area where the proposal is located or that will be affected by the proposal;
notifying public or private groups with a known interest in a certain proposal or in the type of proposal being considered; and
publishing notice in agency newsletters or sending notice to agency mailing lists, including general lists or lists for specific proposals or subject areas.

Public Water Systems.

Public water systems have separate statutory classifications and regulatory requirements. A Group A public water system is:

a public water system with 15 or more service connections, regardless of the number of people;
a system serving an average of 25 or more people per day for 60 or more days within a calendar year, regardless of the number of service connections; or
a system serving 1,000 or more people for two or more consecutive days.

The Washington State Board of Health (Board of Health) is directed by statute to adopt administrative rules (rules) for Group A public water systems to assure safe and reliable public drinking water, and to protect the public health. Provisions governing the rules include requirements pertaining to specific topics, including the design and construction of public water system facilities, drinking water quality standards, and public water system planning and emergency response requirements.

Additionally, the Department of Health (DOH), in complying with requirements of the Board of Health, has adopted rules requiring the purveyors of certain community public water systems, including systems with 1,000 or more connections, to develop and submit water system plans for review and approval by the DOH. The water system plans must include specific elements, including system descriptions, basic planning data, demand forecasts, and source water protection provisions, for a prospective planning period of 20 or more years.