BILL REQ. #:  H-0536.1 

Read first time 01/31/2007.   Referred to Committee on Local Government.

     AN ACT Relating to urban growth area planning; and amending RCW 36.70A.115.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 36.70A.115 and 2003 c 333 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Counties and cities that are required or choose to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 shall ensure that, taken collectively, adoption of and amendments to their comprehensive plans and/or development regulations provide sufficient capacity of land suitable for development within their jurisdictions to accommodate their allocated housing and employment growth, as adopted in the applicable countywide planning policies and consistent with the twenty-year population forecast from the office of financial management.
     (2) If, after January 1, 2006, a county or city planning under RCW 36.70A.040 that amends its comprehensive plan to designate new critical areas land located within an urban growth area in its comprehensive plan land use element under RCW 36.70A.070(1) or amends its development regulations or other standards and thereby reduces the development potential of land within its urban growth area designated for development in its comprehensive plan:
     (a) That county or city must determine the acreage and qualitative reduction in land suitable for development within its urban growth area and docket that amount as a deficiency to the planning director of the county in which the land is located;
     (b) By September 1, 2008, and at least every five years thereafter, each county, in consultation with its cities as required by RCW 36.70A.110 and 36.70A.210, must increase the total land area within its urban growth areas by the total docketed acreage deficiency, with comparable qualitative land characteristics, through amendment of the county's comprehensive plan; and
     (c) The county within which the increased land suitable for urban development is located must review its comprehensive plan elements under RCW 36.70A.070 and its development regulations under RCW 36.70A.060 and adopt any amendments necessary to assure that the comprehensive plan elements and development regulations are consistent with the changes required by (b) of this subsection. This review may be combined with but may not be delayed by the review required by RCW 36.70A.130(3) or the review and evaluation required by RCW 36.70A.215.
     (3) For purposes of this section, "docketing" means compiling and maintaining a detailed list, available to the public, of acreage and land use deficiencies in a manner that ensures the deficiencies will be presented for the required periodic county action.
     (4) For purposes of this section, "qualitative land characteristics" means the designated use of the land in deficiency, its suitability for development, the general location of that land within the county, its physical characteristics, and the availability of urban governmental services for the land.