BILL REQ. #:  S-0532.1 

Read first time 02/10/2005.   Referred to Committee on Transportation.

     AN ACT Relating to department of transportation farmland preservation efforts concerning certain transportation projects; and adding a new section to chapter 47.12 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 47.12 RCW to read as follows:
     Whenever the department secures land or interests in land by eminent domain for a right of way in order to construct or improve a state highway or other state transportation facility and the land is in an area designated as agricultural land of long-term commercial significance under RCW 36.70A.170, the department shall pay a farmland mitigation fee to the county in which the land exists. The county shall use the farmland mitigation fee to purchase development rights to an equivalent amount of agricultural land of comparable or better soil quality elsewhere in the respective county. The farmland mitigation fee imposed under this section applies only to transportation projects in a county administering a farmland preservation program that allows for the purchase of development rights from willing sellers. The respective county shall calculate the farmland mitigation fee in conformance with the current values being paid by the county's farmland preservation program.