Land Use Study Commission
1996 Annual Report
Executive Summary

I. Introduction

The Land Use Study Commission was created by the 1995 Legislature as part of major regulatory reform legislation. The Commission has 14 members representing a cross-section of interests in land use and environmental issues. The Commission's long-term task is to look at the consolidation of state land use and environmental laws.

The Commission's 1996 annual report focuses on the Growth Management Act (GMA) and how it is working. The Commission is recommending amendments to clarify and improve the GMA. These amendments are mid-course corrections. The Commission concluded that the GMA framework, which provides for comprehensive plans, development regulations which implement those plans, and appeal procedures to implement this decision making process, should be maintained.

Since its passage in 1990, over 155 counties and cities have adopted comprehensive plans under the authority of the GMA. Cities and counties do report successes in implementing the GMA, but there have also been problems. To some extent these difficulties are natural because the GMA required changes in the way cities and counties regulated land use. However, there are ambiguities in some key elements of the GMA that the Commission believes should be clarified.

II. General Conclusions

The Commission heard testimony that the GMA has benefited a number counties and cities around the state. But it also heard concerns from counties and cities that there are problems in implementing the statute.

The Commission's recommendations are based on the conclusion that the GMA does need to be clarified in some key areas. Over the last few years, much of the legislative debate about the GMA has focused on procedural aspects of the GMA — for example, what is the appropriate standard to be applied when a county or city decision is appealed. The Commission has concluded that a better approach to these issues is to clarify the ambiguous elements of the GMA that have led to the appeals.

The Commission's report makes the following general conclusions:

The Commission has concluded that providing greater certainty in the planning process will reduce the need to rely on the Boards for dispute resolution. This will also enable greater deference to decisions made by local authorities that fall within the GMA framework.

The Commission has concluded that the GMA should be modified to clarify the range of alternatives available to counties and cities for complying with the goals and requirements of the GMA without undermining the purposes of the GMA to encourage coordination among governments, provide for efficient delivery of public services, create certainty about the location and nature of development, and protect the state’s environment.

The Commission believes there is a need to increase the incentives for building within urban growth areas and reduce the uncertainty about what type of development is appropriate within rural/urban areas. There is also a need to provide benefits and a competitive advantage in accessing scarce state funds to the local governments that have completed their comprehensive plans and development regulations, thereby positioning themselves to move forward towards more efficient and effective management of the population and economic growth coming to Washington.

III. Specific Recommendations

The Commission's report makes a number of specific recommendations. In addition, the Commission has drafted legislation which implements each of its recommendations. The following is a summary of the recommendations included in the Commission's report and legislation:

The Commission recommends amending the GMA to require that local governments: (1) take measures reasonably calculated to provide notice of GMA actions to persons affected by those actions or who have expressed an interest, (2) provide an opportunity for public comment before taking action on significant amendments to a comprehensive plan or development regulation, and (3) provide technical assistance to community organizations to assist in developing a comprehensive plan.

The Commission recommends that a monitoring and evaluation program be established in some of the more populous and faster growing counties. The program would examine the success of the comprehensive plan in meeting its objectives. The county and its cities would be required to take measures to address problems identified in the evaluation. A monitoring and evaluation program would be a new mandate on counties and cities that the Legislature is required to fund under Initiative 601. The Commission is recommending an appropriation to provide the necessary funding.

The Commission recommends that the rural element be clarified to provide guidance to both counties and the Boards. The rural element should establish a clear framework from which counties can make their planning decisions and require counties to show how they have arrived at these decisions. The rural element should establish a limited number of exceptions that would allow more intensive rural development than is otherwise permitted in the rural area.

The Commission had considered a proposal to allow a county and its cities to enter into an agreement to modify some elements of the GMA. This has sometimes been referred to as "GMA-flex." The Commission is not making this a recommendation at this time. There are a number of issues with the proposal that the Commission was did not have time to resolve. The Commission does believe that this option is preferable to proposals that would allow a county to "opt-out" of GMA and should be considered as an alternative to opt-out legislation.

The Commission recommends the standard of review that applies to Board review of local governments decisions under the GMA should be changed to the clearly erroneous standard. The Commission also recommends that an intent section should accompany the change in the statute to clearly state the legislative intent that the change is intended to provide more deference to the decisions of a county or city than the exiting standard provides. The Commission will be looking at the board review process as part of its 1997 workplan.

The Commission recommends that the authority to invalidate comprehensive plans should remain with the Boards. It is recommending changes that clarify that projects that vested prior to the determination are not affected by the order, exempt some types of permits from the effect of a determination of invalidity, and clarify the options available to a local government to have an order lifted.

The Commission recommends that the Boards be allowed to extend the time period for issuing a decision when the parties request additional time for negotiations. The Commission also supports the request in Governor Lowry's budget to provide grants to help state agencies and local governments resolve multi-party public disputes through mediation as an alternative to regulation and litigation.

The Commission is recommending that, if the parties agree, a case on appeal to a Board may be transferred to the Superior Court without a hearing before the Board.

The Commission is not recommending any changes to the procedure for appointing members to the Boards. The Commission does not believe that Senate confirmation is inappropriate, but it concluded that requiring Senate confirmation was not likely to provide any significant benefits.

The Commission is recommending some simplifications to the process governing annexations within urban growth areas. The Commission is also recommending that Boundary Review Boards, in their review of proposed annexations, should consider interlocal agreements addressing services delivery and other issues as well as adopted GMA comprehensive plans.

The Commission has concluded that counties and cities need additional funds to pay for infrastructure identified in GMA comprehensive plans and development regulations. The Commission has proposed as an option that counties and cities planning under GMA be allowed to impose a one-percent tax on new construction. Any tax paid by a builder would be a credit against state sales tax owed by the builder. This would result in no net increase in taxes paid, but would reduce revenues going to the state.

The Commission recommends continuation of the current grant program that has funded pilot projects designed to integrate land use and environmental decisions. The Commission is recommending changes to the program to focus it on proposals that incorporate regulatory reform measures. Funds for the program would come from existing state and local programs involved in GMA related planning activities. Funds could also come from a reallocation of a portion of the existing state sales tax on new construction and the state general fund.

The Commission recommends that the Permit Assistance Center in the Department of Ecology be asked to provide information to state and local governments on programs and methods that make use of professional expertise to help review project permit applications.