H-0727.2 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 1616
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State of Washington 57th Legislature 2001 Regular Session
By Representatives Mulliken, Mielke, Dunn, DeBolt and Crouse
Read first time 01/30/2001. Referred to Committee on Local Government & Housing.
AN ACT Relating to maintaining a sufficient amount of land as suitable for urban development; adding a new section to chapter 36.70A RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes that maintaining a sufficient amount of land designated as, and suitable for, urban development within the comprehensive plans of counties and cities planning under RCW 36.70A.040 is essential if the purposes of chapter 36.70A RCW are to be achieved. The legislature therefore finds that a reduction in the amount of such land in a county, through the expansion of designated critical areas, the revision of development regulations on existing designated critical areas, or new regulation of existing developable lands under local, state, or federal environmental laws, should be offset by the addition of other land classified as, and suitable for, urban development to a county's urban growth areas. That is, when adoption of new standards of environmental protection for urban lands is necessary in the public interest, the purposes of chapter 36.70A RCW are best achieved if the total amount of land available for productive human activities within the designated urban growth areas of counties is not thereby diminished.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 36.70A RCW to read as follows:
(1) If, after January 1, 2001, a county or city planning under RCW 36.70A.040 either amends its comprehensive plan to redesignate as critical areas land located within an urban growth area and previously designated otherwise in its comprehensive plan land use element under RCW 36.70A.070(1) or amends its development regulations or other standards that effectively reduces the development potential of land within its urban growth area and designated for development in its comprehensive plan:
(a) That county or city shall determine the acreage and qualitative reduction in land suitable for development within its urban growth area and shall docket that amount as a deficiency to the planning director of the county in which the land is located;
(b) Not later than September 1, 2002, and at least every five years thereafter, each county, in consultation with its cities as required by RCW 36.70A.110 and 36.70A.210, shall increase the total land area within its urban growth areas by the full docketed acreage deficiency, with comparable qualitative land characteristics, through amendment of the county's comprehensive plan; and
(c) The county within which the increased land suitable for urban development is located shall review its comprehensive plan elements under RCW 36.70A.070 and its development regulations under RCW 36.70A.060 and shall adopt any amendments necessary to assure that the comprehensive plan elements and development regulations are consistent with the changes required by (b) of this subsection.
(2) The revision required by this section may be combined with, but shall not be delayed by, the review required under RCW 36.70A.130(3) or with the review and evaluation required under RCW 36.70A.215.
(3) For purposes of this section, "docketing" means compiling and maintaining a detailed list of land and land use deficiencies resulting from the actions specified in subsection (1) of this section in a manner that will ensure that such deficiencies will be presented for the required periodic action by counties and will be available for review by the public.
(4) For purposes of this section, "qualitative land characteristics" means the designated use of the land in deficiency, its suitability for development, the general location of that land within the county, its physical characteristics, and the availability of urban services for the land.
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