HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 2394

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                    Government Operations

Title:  An act relating to authorized uses for master planned resorts.

Brief Description:  Revising master planned resorts.

Sponsors:  Representatives Reams, Buck, Sheldon, Honeyford, Delvin, Thompson and McMahan.

Brief History:

  Committee Activity:

Government Operations:  1/18/96, 1/19/96 [DPS].

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  Signed by 15 members:  Representatives Reams, Chairman; Cairnes, Vice Chairman; Goldsmith, Vice Chairman; Rust, Ranking Minority Member; Scott, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Conway; R. Fisher; Hargrove; Honeyford; Hymes; Mulliken; Scheuerman; D. Schmidt; Van Luven and Wolfe.

Staff:  Scott White (786-7153).

Background:  Enactment of the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990 and 1991 established a partnership between the state and local governments to manage growth in a comprehensive manner.  Various planning requirements and goals to guide county and city actions are established by statute in the GMA.  Each county planning under all GMA requirements must designate urban growth areas within which urban growth shall be encouraged and outside of which growth may occur only if it is non-urban in nature.  As part of its urban growth area designations, a county may authorize new fully contained communities to be located outside of what it designates as urban growth areas.

Under certain circumstances, counties planning under the GMA may permit master planned resorts which may constitute urban growth outside of urban growth areas.  A master planned resort is defined as a self-contained and fully integrated planned unit development, in a setting of significant natural amenities, with primary focus on destination resort facilities.  Such facilities are to consist of short-term visitor accommodations associated with a range of developed on-site indoor or outdoor recreational facilities.  A master planned resort may include other residential uses within its boundaries, but only if the residential uses are integrated into and support the on-site recreational nature of the resort.

Summary of Substitute Bill:  The proposed legislation amends current law by broadening the definition of a master planned resort in relation to the Growth Management Act.  As a result, the development restrictions outside of designated urban growth areas are relaxed.  Specifically, the new definition requires master planned resorts to include destination resort facilities as a part of a proposed development, instead of requiring them to be the primary focus.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:  The substitute bill amends the original bill in two ways.  First, it requires the facilities and commercial activities permitted in a master planned resort, that are not short-term visitor accommodations, to be consistent with the on-site recreational nature of the resort, as opposed to supporting it.  Furthermore, language is added allowing a county to allocate a portion of its 20-year population projection, prepared by the Office of Financial Management, to the master planned resort, corresponding to the projected number of permanent residents within the master planned resort.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill:  The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

Testimony For:  The current definition of a master planned resort is too narrow.  The bill doesn't alter the process to make a designation, just the definition used.  The definition change would not "open the flood gates" to unrestrained growth for master planned resorts.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  David Cunningham, Pope Resources; Tom Goeltz, Davis, Wright, Tremain; and Jerry Harper, Harper Associates.