Opinion ID: 2600501
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: LCC 17.30.480: Essential Public Facilities (forest land)

Text: ¶ 62 LCC 17.30.480 provides: Essential public or regulated facilities, such as roads, bridges, pipelines, utility facilities, schools, shops, prisons, and airports are facilities, which by their nature are commonly located outside of urban areas and may need large areas of accessible land. Such areas are allowed where: (1) Identified in the comprehensive plan of a public agency or regulated utility. (2) The potential impact on forestry lands and steps to minimize impacts to commercial forestry are specifically considered in the siting process. In deciding that this section was both noncompliant and invalid, the Board admitted that: There are essential public facilities such as roads, bridges, pipelines and utility lines that must, of necessity, be located in resource lands. Clearly, the County must take into account the need for the construction of such facilities in resource lands. However, the County must also assure that the construction of these essential public facilities in forest resource lands does not interfere with the use of the resource. CP at 47. Lewis County notes that one-third of the county is in designated forest lands. CP at 871. Thus, essential public facilities including roads, bridges, pipelines, and utility lines must be located in resource lands. ¶ 63 This section of Lewis County's code is compliant and valid because the County has appropriately balanced the requirement for essential public facilities with conservation of forest land. The evidence supporting this appropriate balance includes the admitted fact that forest land encompasses a large percentage of Lewis County, and the requirements of section 480 that uses must be identified in the comprehensive plan. The impact of each use on the forest land is considered and minimized in the siting process. The legislature required the counties to receive deference in making such decisions.