SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 5651

As Passed Senate, March 16, 2003

Title: An act relating to urban industrial land banks in counties with low population densities.

Brief Description: Authorizing land banks in certain counties with low population densities.

Sponsors: Senators Hargrove, Mulliken and T. Sheldon.

Brief History:

Committee Activity: Land Use & Planning: 2/17/03, 2/24/03 [DP].

Passed Senate: 3/16/03, 48-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON LAND USE & PLANNING

Majority Report: Do pass.

      Signed by Senators Mulliken, Chair; McCaslin, Morton and T. Sheldon.

Staff: Jennifer Arnold (786-7471)

Background: Under the Growth Management Act (GMA), counties must encourage urban growth within urban growth areas (UGAs) and may allow growth outside if it is not urban in nature. The GMA contains several exceptions to the general prohibition against urban growth outside UGAs, one of which grants certain counties the authority to designate an industrial land bank outside of a UGA for up to two master planned locations.

The option to establish industrial land banks was the result of 1995 legislation that intended to provide a more expeditious process for counties to identify locations for major industrial activity in advance of specific proposals and, thus, facilitate the siting of potential development projects. The counties' authority to establish industrial land banks terminates on two different dates, either December 31, 2002, or December 31, 2007, depending on established population, geographic, and unemployment criteria for the county.

Under current law, counties with an average level of unemployment for the preceding three years that exceeds the average state unemployment for those years by 20 percent and are bordered by the Pacific Ocean and by the Hood Canal are included among the group of counties with authority to designate industrial land banks. However, there are presently no counties that meet these requirements.

Summary of Bill: Counties that have population densities of less than 100 persons per square mile and are bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Hood Canal are included among the counties that have the authority to establish a process for designating industrial land banks under the GMA (Jefferson and Clallam counties).

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: The bill is a technical correction to include Jefferson County in the industrial land bank program, as was originally intended in the 2002 Legislature.

Testimony Against: None.

Testified: No one.