Washington Administrative Code › Title 365 - Commerce, Department of (Community Development) › Chapter 365-196 - Growth Management Act-Procedural criteria for adopting comprehensive plans and development regulations › Part ONE - GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS › Section 365-196-010 - Background

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
Through the Growth Management Act, the legislature provided a
							new framework for land use planning and the regulation of development in
							Washington state. The act was enacted in response to problems associated with
							uncoordinated and unplanned growth and a lack of common goals in the
							conservation and the wise use of our lands. The problems included increased
							traffic congestion, pollution, school overcrowding, urban sprawl, and the loss
							of rural lands.
(1) Major features of
						the act's framework include:
(a) A requirement
						that counties with specified populations and rates of growth and the cities
						within them adopt comprehensive plans and development regulations under the
						act. Other counties can choose to be covered by this requirement, thereby
						including the cities they contain.
(b) A set of common goals to guide the
						development of comprehensive plans and development regulations.
(c) The concept that the process should be a
						"bottom up" effort, involving early and continuous public participation, with
						the central locus of decision-making at the local level, bounded by the goals
						and requirements of the act.
(d)
						Requirements for the locally developed plans to be internally consistent,
						consistent with county-wide planning policies and multicounty planning
						policies, and consistent with the plans of other counties and cities where
						there are common borders or related regional issues.
(e) A requirement that development
						regulations adopted to implement the comprehensive plans be consistent with
						such plans.
(f) The principle that
						development and the providing of public facilities and services needed to
						support development should occur concurrently.
(g) A determination that planning and plan
						implementation actions should address difficult issues that have resisted
						resolution in the past, such as:
(i) The
						timely financing of needed infrastructure;
(ii) Providing adequate and affordable
						housing for all economic segments of the population;
(iii) Concentrating growth in urban areas,
						provided with adequate urban services;
(iv) The siting of essential public
						facilities;
(v) The designation and
						conservation of agricultural, forest, and mineral resource lands;
(vi) The designation and protection of
						environmentally critical areas.
(h) A determination that comprehensive
						planning can simultaneously address these multiple issues by focusing on the
						land development process as a common underlying factor.
(i) An intention that economic development be
						encouraged and fostered within the planning and regulatory scheme established
						for managing growth.
(j) A
						recognition that the act is a fundamental building block of regulatory reform.
						The state and local government have invested considerable resources in an act
						that should serve as the integrating framework for other land use related
						laws.
(k) A desire to recognize the
						importance of rural areas and provide for rural economic development.
(l) A requirement that counties and cities
						must periodically review and update their comprehensive plans and development
						regulations to ensure continued compliance with the goals and requirements of
						the act.