FINAL BILL REPORT

ESSB 5748

C 189 L 02

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Integrating transportation and land use planning.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Transportation (originally sponsored by Senators McAuliffe, Horn, Shin, Winsley, Oke, Haugen, Kohl‑Welles and Kastama; by request of The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation).

Senate Committee on Transportation

House Committee on Transportation

Background:  The Governor and the Legislature created the Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation (BRCT) in 1998 to do the following:  assess the local, regional, and state transportation system; ensure that current and future money is spent wisely; make the system more accountable and predictable; and prepare a 20-year plan for funding and investing in the transportation system.

In Recommendation 5, the BRCT recommends that the state invest in maintenance, preservation, and improvement of the entire transportation system so that transportation benchmarks can be achieved.  Specifically, the BRCT recommends that jurisdictions integrate transportation and land use planning by developing a long-term and effective strategy to reduce both traffic and investment costs by focusing new commercial and multi-family growth in existing downtown,  pedestrian, and transit-friendly neighborhoods.

Summary: City and county planning commissions, in carrying out their duties, should demonstrate how land use planning is integrated with transportation planning.

Code cities should direct their planning agencies to include in their development plans the integration of transportation and land use planning.

Priority programming for the highway improvement program must take into account:  support for development in and revitalization of existing downtowns; the extent to which the project accommodates planned growth and economic development; the extent that development implements local comprehensive plans; the extent of compact, transit‑oriented development at appropriate residential and nonresidential densities; and the feasibility of multimodal transportation.

The small city program is exempt from the land use criteria considered in Transportation Improvement Board funding decisions.  Cities with a population less than 5,000 are exempt from the requirement that the state priority programming process take into account synchronization with other potential transportation projects, including transit and multimodal projects.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate48 0

House7125(House amended)

Senate41 4(Senate concurred)

Effective:  June 13, 2002