(1) "Agricultural land" is land primarily devoted to the commercial production of horticultural, viticultural, floricultural, dairy, apiary, vegetable, or animal products or of berries, grain, hay, straw, turf, seed, Christmas trees not subject to the excise tax imposed by RCW
84.33.100 through
84.33.140, finfish in upland hatcheries, or livestock, and that has long-term commercial significance for agricultural production. These lands are referred to in this chapter as agricultural resource lands to distinguish between formally designated lands, and other lands used for agricultural purposes.
(2) "City" means any city or town, including a code city.
(3) "Critical aquifer recharge areas" are areas with a critical recharging effect on aquifers used for potable water, including areas where an aquifer that is a source of drinking water is vulnerable to contamination that would affect the potability of the water, or is susceptible to reduced recharge.
(4) "Critical areas" include the following:
(a) Wetlands;
(b) Areas with a critical recharging effect on aquifers used for potable water, referred to in this chapter as critical aquifer recharge areas;
(c) Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas;
(d) Frequently flooded areas; and
(e) Geologically hazardous areas.
(5) "Erosion hazard areas" are those areas containing soils which, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Survey Program, may experience significant erosion. Erosion hazard areas also include coastal erosion-prone areas and channel migration zones.
(6)(a) "Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas" are areas that serve a critical role in sustaining needed habitats and species for the functional integrity of the ecosystem, and which, if altered, may reduce the likelihood that the species will persist over the long term. These areas may include, but are not limited to, rare or vulnerable ecological systems, communities, and habitat or habitat elements including seasonal ranges, breeding habitat, winter range, and movement corridors; and areas with high relative population density or species richness. Counties and cities may also designate locally important habitats and species.
(b) "Habitats of local importance" designated as fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas include those areas found to be locally important by counties and cities.
(c) "Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas" does not include such artificial features or constructs as irrigation delivery systems, irrigation infrastructure, irrigation canals, or drainage ditches that lie within the boundaries of, and are maintained by, a port district or an irrigation district or company.
(7) "Forest land" is land primarily devoted to growing trees for long-term commercial timber production on land that can be economically and practically managed for such production, including Christmas trees subject to the excise tax imposed under RCW
84.33.100 through
84.33.140, and that has long-term commercial significance. These lands are referred to in this chapter as forest resource lands to distinguish between formally designated lands, and other lands used for forestry purposes.
(8) "Frequently flooded areas" are lands in the flood plain subject to at least a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year, or within areas subject to flooding due to high groundwater. These areas include, but are not limited to, streams, rivers, lakes, coastal areas, wetlands, and areas where high groundwater forms ponds on the ground surface.
(9) "Geologically hazardous areas" are areas that because of their susceptibility to erosion, sliding, earthquake, or other geological events, are not suited to siting commercial, residential, or industrial development consistent with public health or safety concerns.
(10) "Landslide hazard areas" are areas at risk of mass movement due to a combination of geologic, topographic, and hydrologic factors.
(11) "Long-term commercial significance" includes the growing capacity, productivity, and soil composition of the land for long-term commercial production, in consideration with the land's proximity to population areas, and the possibility of more intense uses of land. Long-term commercial significance means the land is capable of producing the specified natural resources at commercially sustainable levels for at least the 20-year planning period, if adequately conserved. Designated mineral resource lands of long-term commercial significance may have alternative post-mining land uses, as provided by the Surface Mining Reclamation Act, comprehensive plan and development regulations, or other laws.
(12) "Mine hazard areas" are those areas directly underlain by, adjacent to, or affected by mine workings such as adits, tunnels, drifts, or air shafts.
(13) "Mineral resource lands" means lands primarily devoted to the extraction of minerals or that have known or potential long-term commercial significance for the extraction of minerals.
(14) "Minerals" include gravel, sand, and valuable metallic substances.
(15) "Natural resource lands" means agricultural, forest and mineral resource lands which have long-term commercial significance.
(16) "Public facilities" include streets, roads, highways, sidewalks, street and road lighting systems, traffic signals, domestic water systems, storm and sanitary sewer systems, parks and recreational facilities, and schools.
(17) "Public services" include fire protection and suppression, law enforcement, public health, education, recreation, environmental protection, and other governmental services.
(18) "Seismic hazard areas" are areas subject to severe risk of damage as a result of earthquake induced ground shaking, slope failure, settlement, soil liquefaction, debris flows, lahars, or tsunamis.
(19) "Species of local importance" are those species that are of local concern due to their population status or their sensitivity to habitat alteration or that are game species.
(20) "Urban growth" refers to growth that makes intensive use of land for the location of buildings, structures, and impermeable surfaces to such a degree as to be incompatible with the primary use of such land for the production of food, other agricultural products, or fiber, or the extraction of mineral resources. Urban growth typically requires urban governmental services. "Characterized by urban growth" refers to land having urban growth located on it, or to land located in relationship to an area with urban growth on it as to be appropriate for urban growth.
(21) "Volcanic hazard areas" shall include areas subject to pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and inundation by debris flows, lahars, mudflows, or related flooding resulting from volcanic activity.
(23) "Wellhead protection area (WHPA)" means protective areas associated with public drinking water sources established by water systems and approved or assigned by the state department of health.
(24) "Wetland" or "wetlands" means areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands do not include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland sites, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities, or those wetlands created after July 1, 1990, that were unintentionally created as a result of the construction of a road, street, or highway. However, wetlands may include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland areas to mitigate conversion of wetlands, if permitted by the county or city.