Title: An act relating to urban industrial land banks.

Brief Description: Expanding eligibility for urban industrial land banks.

Sponsors: House Committee on Local Government (originally sponsored by Representatives Hunt, DeBolt, Williams and Alexander).

Brief History: Passed House: 2/11/06, 95-0.

Committee Activity: Government Operations & Elections: 2/22/06.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS & ELECTIONS

Staff: Genevieve Pisarski (786-7488)

Background: Under the Growth Management Act (GMA), counties must encourage urban growth within urban growth areas (UGAs). There are several exceptions to the general prohibition against urban growth outside UGAs; one of them allows a specific industrial development to be permitted outside a UGA, under specified conditions, and another allows certain counties to designate up to two master planned locations outside of a UGA as industrial land banks.

The option to establish industrial land banks was the result of 1996 legislation creating a pilot project for a more expeditious process to identify locations for major industrial activity in advance of specific proposals, in order to facilitate economic development. The eligibility criteria were a population greater than 250,000 and being part of a metropolitan area that includes a city in another state with the same population (Clark County), and the termination date of the pilot project was December 31, 1998.

In 1997, eligibility criteria were added to include a county with a population greater than 140,000 and adjacent to another country (Whatcom County).

In 1998, the termination date was extended to December 31, 1999, and eligibility criteria were added to include a county with a population greater than 40,000 but less than 75,000 and average unemployment that exceeds the state 3-year average by 20 percent and bordered by the Pacific Ocean or located on I-5 or I-90 (Clallam, Lewis, and Grant Counties).

In 2001, the termination date was extended to December 31, 2002, and eligibility criteria were added to include a county with a population greater than 40,000 but less than 80,000 and average unemployment that exceeds the state 3-year average by 20 percent and located on I-5 or I-90 (Clallam, Lewis, and Grant Counties).

In 2002, the termination date was extended to December 31, 2007, and eligibility criteria were added to include a county east of the Cascade divide and bordering another state to the south or located wholly south of Interstate 90 and bordering the Columbia River to the east and a county with average unemployment that exceeds the state 3-year average by more than 20 percent and bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Hood Canal (Clallam, Mason, Lewis, Grant, Benton, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, and Franklin). For a county with a population greater than 40,000 but less than 80,000 and average unemployment that exceeds the state 3-year average by 20 percent and located on I-5 or I-90, however, the termination date remained December 31, 2002.

In 2003, eligibility criteria for the 2007 termination date were added to include a county with average population density of less than 100 persons per square mile and bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Hood Canal (Jefferson County).

In 2004, several procedural requirements for siting industrial land banks were changed.

Summary of Bill: Eligibility criteria for authority to establish industrial land banks are added to include a county adjacent to a major railroad connection and close to an interstate freeway. The termination date for industrial land bank authority is extended to December 31, 2014.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: No.

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