AN ACT Relating to local government responsibility and accountability in mitigating impacts of public facilities on certain surrounding neighborhoods with high poverty or concentrations of persons of color; and adding a new section to chapter 35.21 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 35.21 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A city with a population of more than five hundred fifty thousand that permits, constructs, or operates a public facility in a neighborhood with a high poverty level or a high rate of ethnic diversity must assume the responsibility for the negative impacts that facility has had or might have on the surrounding neighborhood. The city must consider the potential or actual disparate racial, social, and economic impacts of the public facility on residents nearby and develop a mitigation plan, which keeps the residents of the impacted neighborhood whole for the costs of the mitigation strategy. The city may negotiate with other political subdivisions who have a direct interest in having created the negative impacts, but the residents must be held harmless.

(2) For purposes of this section, neighborhood boundaries are defined by the boundaries of community reporting areas, as established in the most recent United States census.

(3) For purposes of this section:

(a) A neighborhood has a high poverty level if twelve percent or more of the population is below the poverty level according to the most recent American community survey's five-year estimate.

(b) A neighborhood has a high rate of ethnic diversity if forty percent or more of the population identifies as persons of color according to the most recent American community survey's five-year estimate.

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