6628.E

AN ACT Relating to property rights dispute resolution; amending RCW 90.61.040; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes that the resolution of disputes between private property owners and government has a unique character. These disputes are between citizens with limited resources and the government that serves them, which has relatively unlimited resources.

The legislature further recognizes that the availability of a variety of alternative means of dispute resolution is of benefit to the citizens of this state.

The legislature intends to establish and fund a pilot project designed to bridge the transitional period required to develop a long range, public-private partnership for mediated settlement of property rights disputes in the state of Washington.

Sec. 2. RCW 90.61.040 and 1995 c 347 s 804 are each amended to read as follows:

The commission shall:

(1) Consider the effectiveness of state and local government efforts to consolidate and integrate the growth management act, the state environmental policy act, the shoreline management act, and other land use, planning, environmental, and permitting laws.

(2) Identify the revisions and modifications needed in state land use, planning, and environmental law and practice to adequately plan for growth and achieve economically and environmentally sustainable development, to adequately assess environmental impacts of comprehensive plans, development regulations, and growth, and to reduce the time and cost of obtaining project permits.

(3) Draft a consolidated land use procedure, following these guidelines:

(a) Conduct land use planning through the comprehensive planning process under chapter 36.70A RCW rather than through review of individual projects;

(b) Involve diverse sectors of the public in the planning process. Early and informal environmental analysis should be incorporated into planning and decision making;

(c) Recognize that different questions need to be answered and different levels of detail applied at each planning phase, from the initial development of plan concepts or plan elements to implementation programs;

(d) Integrate and combine to the fullest extent possible the processes, analysis, and documents currently required under chapters 36.70A and 43.21C RCW, so that subsequent plan decisions and subsequent implementation will incorporate measures to promote the environmental, economic, and other goals and to mitigate undesirable or unintended adverse impacts on a community's quality of life;

(e) Focus environmental review and the level of detail needed for different stages of plan and project decisions on the environmental considerations most relevant to that stage of the process;

(f) Avoid duplicating review that has occurred for plan decisions when specific projects are proposed;

(g) Use environmental review on projects to: (i) Review and document consistency with comprehensive plans and development regulations; (ii) provide prompt and coordinated review by agencies, tribes, and the public on compliance with applicable environmental laws and plans, including mitigation for site specific project impacts that have not been considered and addressed at the plan or development regulation level; and (iii) ensure accountability by local government to applicants and the public for requiring and implementing mitigation measures;

(h) Maintain or improve the quality of environmental analysis both for plan and for project decisions, while integrating these analyses with improved state and local planning and permitting processes;

(i) Examine existing land use and environmental permits for necessity and utility. To the extent possible, existing permits should be combined into fewer permits, assuring that the values and principles intended to be protected by those permits remain protected; and

(j) Consolidate local government appeal processes to allow a single appeal of permits at local government levels, a single state level administrative appeal, and a final judicial appeal.

(4) Monitor instances state-wide of the vesting of project permit applications during the period that an appeal is pending before a growth management hearings board, as authorized under RCW 36.70A.300. The commission shall also review the extent to which such vesting results in the approval of projects that are inconsistent with a comprehensive plan or development regulation provision ultimately found to be in compliance with a board's order or remand. The commission shall analyze the impact of such approvals on ensuring the attainment of the goals and policies of chapter 36.70A RCW, and make recommendations to the governor and the legislature on statutory changes to address any adverse impacts from the provisions of RCW 36.70A.300. The commission shall provide an initial report on its findings and recommendations by November 1, 1995, and submit its further findings and recommendations subsequently in the reports required under RCW 90.61.030.

(5) Monitor local government consolidated permit procedures and the effectiveness of the timelines established by RCW 36.70B.090. The commission shall include in its report submitted to the governor and the legislature on November 1, 1997, its recommendation about what timelines, if any, should be imposed on the local government consolidated permit process required by chapter 36.70B RCW.

(6) Evaluate funding mechanisms that will enable local governments to pay for and recover the costs of conducting integrated planning and environmental analysis. The commission shall include its conclusions in its first report to the legislature on November 1, 1995, and include any recommended statutory changes.

(7) Study, in cooperation with the state board for registration of professional engineers and the state building code council, ways in which state agencies and local governments could authorize professionals with appropriate qualifications to certify a project's compliance with certain state and local land use and environmental requirements. The commission shall report to the legislature on measures necessary to implement such a system of professional certification.

(8) Consider ways for reducing conflicts over specific development projects, the siting of essential public facilities, and the establishment and revision of local plans and official controls and, for those disputes that do arise, examine how to encourage their settlement through alternative dispute resolution.

These guidelines are intended to guide the work of the commission, without limiting its charge to integrate and consolidate Washington's land use and environmental laws into a single, manageable statutory framework.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The land use study commission shall report to the government operations committees of the house of representatives and the senate by July 1, 1997, on RCW 90.61.040(8).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. Section 2 of this act expires June 30, 1998.