BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to telecommuting; amending RCW 36.70.020, 35.63.010, and 35A.63.010; reenacting and amending RCW 36.70A.030; adding a new section to chapter 36.70A RCW; adding a new section to chapter 36.70 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 35.63 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 35A.63 RCW; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that telecommunications technologies and services can be used cost-effectively to substitute for travel in many business applications. The use of telecommunications can reduce the cost of building or renting office space, help reduce highway congestion, reduce energy use, improve air quality, and allow information intensive jobs to be located outside urban areas.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 36.70A RCW to read as follows:

No county or city that is required or chooses to plan under this chapter may enact or maintain an ordinance, development regulation, zoning regulation, or official control, policy, or administrative practice that prohibits a telecommuting work center in areas zoned for commercial use or areas zoned for a combination of commercial and residential uses.

Sec. 3. RCW 36.70A.030 and 1994 c 307 s 2 and 1994 c 257 s 5 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Adopt a comprehensive land use plan" means to enact a new comprehensive land use plan or to update an existing comprehensive land use plan.

(2) "Agricultural land" means land primarily devoted to the commercial production of horticultural, viticultural, floricultural, dairy, apiary, vegetable, or animal products or of berries, grain, hay, straw, turf, seed, Christmas trees not subject to the excise tax imposed by RCW 84.33.100 through 84.33.140, finfish in upland hatcheries, or livestock, and that has long-term commercial significance for agricultural production.

(3) "City" means any city or town, including a code city.

(4) "Comprehensive land use plan," "comprehensive plan," or "plan" means a generalized coordinated land use policy statement of the governing body of a county or city that is adopted pursuant to this chapter.

(5) "Critical areas" include the following areas and ecosystems: (a) Wetlands; (b) areas with a critical recharging effect on aquifers used for potable water; (c) fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas; (d) frequently flooded areas; and (e) geologically hazardous areas.

(6) "Department" means the department of community, trade, and economic development.

(7) For purposes of RCW 36.70A.065 and 36.70A.440, "development permit application" means any application for a development proposal for a use that could be permitted under a plan adopted pursuant to this chapter and is consistent with the underlying land use and zoning, including but not limited to building permits, subdivisions, binding site plans, planned unit developments, conditional uses or other applications pertaining to land uses, but shall not include rezones, proposed amendments to comprehensive plans or the adoption or amendment of development regulations.

(8) "Development regulations" means any controls placed on development or land use activities by a county or city, including, but not limited to, zoning ordinances, official controls, planned unit development ordinances, subdivision ordinances, and binding site plan ordinances.

(9) "Forest land" means land primarily devoted to growing trees for long-term commercial timber production on land that can be economically and practically managed for such production, including Christmas trees subject to the excise tax imposed under RCW 84.33.100 through 84.33.140, and that has long-term commercial significance. In determining whether forest land is primarily devoted to growing trees for long-term commercial timber production on land that can be economically and practically managed for such production, the following factors shall be considered: (a) The proximity of the land to urban, suburban, and rural settlements; (b) surrounding parcel size and the compatibility and intensity of adjacent and nearby land uses; (c) long-term local economic conditions that affect the ability to manage for timber production; and (d) the availability of public facilities and services conducive to conversion of forest land to other uses.

(10) "Geologically hazardous areas" means areas that because of their susceptibility to erosion, sliding, earthquake, or other geological events, are not suited to the siting of commercial, residential, or industrial development consistent with public health or safety concerns.

(11) "Long-term commercial significance" includes the growing capacity, productivity, and soil composition of the land for long-term commercial production, in consideration with the land's proximity to population areas, and the possibility of more intense uses of the land.

(12) "Minerals" include gravel, sand, and valuable metallic substances.

(13) "Public facilities" include streets, roads, highways, sidewalks, street and road lighting systems, traffic signals, domestic water systems, storm and sanitary sewer systems, parks and recreational facilities, and schools.

(14) "Public services" include fire protection and suppression, law enforcement, public health, education, recreation, environmental protection, and other governmental services.

(15) "Telecommuting" means the use of telecommunications services and technologies to allow a worker to perform regular work tasks at a location other than his or her usual worksite.

(16) "Telecommuting work center" means a facility equipped to allow a number of workers to telecommute. The workers may be from different organizations.

(17) "Urban growth" refers to growth that makes intensive use of land for the location of buildings, structures, and impermeable surfaces to such a degree as to be incompatible with the primary use of such land for the production of food, other agricultural products, or fiber, or the extraction of mineral resources. When allowed to spread over wide areas, urban growth typically requires urban governmental services. "Characterized by urban growth" refers to land having urban growth located on it, or to land located in relationship to an area with urban growth on it as to be appropriate for urban growth.

((~~(16)~~)) (18) "Urban growth areas" means those areas designated by a county pursuant to RCW 36.70A.110.

((~~(17)~~)) (19) "Urban governmental services" include those governmental services historically and typically delivered by cities, and include storm and sanitary sewer systems, domestic water systems, street cleaning services, fire and police protection services, public transit services, and other public utilities associated with urban areas and normally not associated with nonurban areas.

((~~(18)~~)) (20) "Wetland" or "wetlands" means areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands do not include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland sites, including, but not limited to, irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities. However, wetlands may include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland areas created to mitigate conversion of wetlands, if permitted by the county or city.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 36.70 RCW to read as follows:

No local government that is planning under this chapter may enact or maintain an ordinance, development regulation, zoning regulation, or official control, policy, or administrative practice that prohibits a telecommuting work center in areas zoned for commercial use or areas zoned for a combination of commercial and residential uses.

Sec. 5. RCW 36.70.020 and 1963 c 4 s 36.70.020 are each amended to read as follows:

The following words or terms as used in this chapter shall have the following meaning unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context:

(1) "Approval by motion" is a means by which a board, through other than by ordinance, approves and records recognition of a comprehensive plan or amendments thereto.

(2) "Board" means the board of county commissioners.

(3) "Certification" means the affixing on any map or by adding to any document comprising all or any portion of a comprehensive plan a record of the dates of action thereon by the commission and by the board, together with the signatures of the officer or officers authorized by ordinance to so sign.

(4) "Commission" means a county or regional planning commission.

(5) "Commissioners" means members of a county or regional planning commission.

(6) "Comprehensive plan" means the policies and proposals approved and recommended by the planning agency or initiated by the board and approved by motion by the board (a) as a beginning step in planning for the physical development of the county; (b) as the means for coordinating county programs and services; (c) as a source of reference to aid in developing, correlating, and coordinating official regulations and controls; and (d) as a means for promoting the general welfare. Such plan shall consist of the required elements set forth in RCW 36.70.330 and may also include the optional elements set forth in RCW 36.70.350 which shall serve as a policy guide for the subsequent public and private development and official controls so as to present all proposed developments in a balanced and orderly relationship to existing physical features and governmental functions.

(7) "Conditional use" means a use listed among those classified in any given zone but permitted to locate only after review by the board of adjustment, or zoning adjustor if there be such, and the granting of a conditional use permit imposing such performance standards as will make the use compatible with other permitted uses in the same vicinity and zone and assure against imposing excessive demands upon public utilities, provided the county ordinances specify the standards and criteria that shall be applied.

(8) "Department" means a planning department organized and functioning as any other department in any county.

(9) "Element" means one of the various categories of subjects, each of which constitutes a component part of the comprehensive plan.

(10) "Ex officio member" means a member of the commission who serves by virtue of his official position as head of a department specified in the ordinance creating the commission.

(11) "Official controls" means legislatively defined and enacted policies, standards, precise detailed maps and other criteria, all of which control the physical development of a county or any part thereof or any detail thereof, and are the means of translating into regulations and ordinances all or any part of the general objectives of the comprehensive plan. Such official controls may include, but are not limited to, ordinances establishing zoning, subdivision control, platting, and adoption of detailed maps.

(12) "Ordinance" means a legislative enactment by a board; in this chapter the word, "ordinance", is synonymous with the term "resolution", as representing a legislative enactment by a board of county commissioners.

(13) "Planning agency" means (a) a planning commission, together with its staff members, employees and consultants, or (b) a department organized and functioning as any other department in any county government together with its planning commission.

(14) "Telecommuting" means the use of telecommunications services and technologies to allow a worker to perform regular work tasks at a location other than his or her usual worksite.

(15) "Telecommuting work center" means a facility equipped to allow a number of workers to telecommute. The workers may be from different organizations.

(16) "Variance." A variance is the means by which an adjustment is made in the application of the specific regulations of a zoning ordinance to a particular piece of property, which property, because of special circumstances applicable to it, is deprived of privileges commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same vicinity and zone and which adjustment remedies disparity in privileges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. A new section is added to chapter 35.63 RCW to read as follows:

No municipality that is planning under this chapter may enact or maintain an ordinance, development regulation, zoning regulation, or official control, policy, or administrative practice that prohibits a telecommuting work center in areas zoned for commercial use or areas zoned for a combination of commercial and residential uses.

Sec. 7. RCW 35.63.010 and 1965 c 7 s 35.63.010 are each amended to read as follows:

As used in this chapter the following terms shall have the meaning herein given them:

"Appointive members" means all members of a commission other than ex officio members;

"Board" means the board of county commissioners;

"City" includes every incorporated city and town;

"Commission" means a city or county planning commission;

"Council" means the chief legislative body of a city;

"Ex officio members" means the members of a commission chosen from among city or county officials;

"Highways" include streets, roads, boulevards, lanes, alleys, viaducts and other traveled ways;

"Mayor" means the chief executive of a city;

"Municipality" includes every county and city.

"Telecommuting" means the use of telecommunications services and technologies to allow a worker to perform regular work tasks at a location other than his or her usual worksite.

"Telecommuting work center" means a facility equipped to allow a number of workers to telecommute. The workers may be from different organizations.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. A new section is added to chapter 35A.63 RCW to read as follows:

Sec. 9. RCW 35A.63.010 and 1967 ex.s. c 119 s 35A.63.010 are each amended to read as follows:

The following words or terms as used in this chapter shall have the meanings set forth below unless different meanings are clearly indicated by the context:

(1) "Chief administrative officer" means the mayor in code cities operating under the mayor-council and commission forms, the city manager in code cities operating under the council‑manager forms, or such other officer as the charter of a charter code city designates as the chief administrative officer.

(2) "City" means an incorporated city or town.

(3) "Code city" is used where the application of this chapter is limited to a code city; where joint, regional, or cooperative action is intended, a code city may be included in the unrestricted terms "city" or "municipality".

(4) "Comprehensive plan" means the policies and proposals approved by the legislative body as set forth in RCW 35A.63.060 through 35A.63.072 of this chapter and containing, at least, the elements set forth in RCW 35A.63.061.

(5) "Legislative body" means a code city council, a code city commission, and, in cases involving regional or cooperative planning or action, the governing body of a municipality.

(6) "Municipality" includes any code city and, in cases of regional or cooperative planning or action, any city, town, township, county, or special district.

(7) "Ordinance" means a legislative enactment by the legislative body of a municipality; in this chapter "ordinance" is synonymous with the term "resolution" when "resolution" is used as representing a legislative enactment.

(8) "Planning agency" means any person, body, or organization designated by the legislative body to perform a planning function or portion thereof for a municipality, and includes, without limitation, any commission, committee, department, or board together with its staff members, employees, agents, and consultants.

(9) "Special district" means that portion of the state, county, or other political subdivision created under general law for rendering of one or more local public services or for administrative, educational, judicial, or political purposes.

(10) "Telecommuting" means the use of telecommunications services and technologies to allow a worker to perform regular work tasks at a location other than his or her usual worksite.

(11) "Telecommuting work center" means a facility equipped to allow a number of workers to telecommute. The workers may be from different organizations.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The department of transportation shall contract for the development and implementation of a telecommuting work center demonstration project located in a county that plans under chapter 36.70A RCW and borders another state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. The sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1997, from the air pollution control account in the general fund to the department of transportation for the purposes of carrying out section 10 of this act.