Growth Management Act. The Growth Management Act (GMA) is the comprehensive land use planning framework for county and city governments in Washington. Enacted in 1990 and 1991, the GMA establishes numerous planning requirements for counties and cities obligated by mandate or choice to fully plan under the GMA—planning jurisdictions—and a reduced number of directives for all other counties and cities. Twenty-eight of Washington's 39 counties, and the cities within those counties, are planning jurisdictions.
Impact Fees. Planning jurisdictions may impose impact fees on development activity to finance certain public facility improvements that are addressed by the capital facilities plan element of a comprehensive plan. This financing must provide a balance between impact fees and other sources of public funds and cannot rely solely on impact fees. Impact fees may only be imposed for system improvements, a term defined in statute, that are reasonably related to the new development, may not exceed a proportionate share of the costs of system improvements, and must be used for system improvements that will reasonably benefit the new development.
Impact fees may be collected and spent only for qualifying public facilities included within a capital facilities plan element of a comprehensive plan. Public facilities, within the context of impact fee statutes, are the following capital facilities owned or operated by government entities:
County and city ordinances by which impact fees are imposed must conform with specific requirements. Among other obligations, these ordinances must include a schedule of impact fees for each type of development activity for which a fee is imposed.
The definition of public facilities is amended to add law enforcement facilities.