Drafter
Clerk 10/29/2008
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to no shooting areas; and amending Ordinance 1454, Sections 1 through 3, and K.C.C. 12.68.010.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. In the unincorporated areas of King County that are not designated by ordinance as "no shooting areas," residents may discharge firearms on their own property or with the permission of the owner of the property. While the discharge of firearms is generally allowed, the King County Code places certain restrictions related to potential for harm from the discharge of weapons.
2. Nevertheless, eighty-nine separate locations within the county have been established as no shooting areas.
3. The King County Code delineates the process for establishing a no shooting area. The code contains three steps.
4. First, the residents seeking to establish a no shooting area must develop a petition, map, and legal definition of the area to that would be defined as the no shooting area. The residents then must seek at least ten signatures on the petition from "elector-residents" in the area. When the petitioners have sufficient signatures, they are required to submit the petition to the clerk of the King County council.
5. The second step requires the certification of the petition and the elector-resident signatures from the King County elections division.
6. Finally, the county is required to advertise the ordinance for the potential establishment of the no shooting area for at least ten days prior to the hearing of the ordinance. The council may then establish the no shooting area by ordinance.
7. The King County Code has traditionally identified each no shooting area by its voter precinct name.
8. State statute requires that the county regularly review voter precinct boundaries and redistrict areas when necessary. As result, many voter precincts boundaries have changed and no longer conform to the legal descriptions identified as no shooting areas.
9. The council uses the voter precinct as the means for the petition process to ensure acceptance of a no shooting area, but designates the area using maps and legal descriptions other than voting precincts. Therefore, the no shooting area is based on the geographic description in code, not the name of the voter precinct. This ordinance clarifies this issue.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Ordinance 1454, Sections 1 through 3, and K.C.C. 12.68.010 are each hereby amended to read as follows:
A. Petitions requesting the council to create a no shooting area or dissolve an existing ((no)) no shooting area shall be filed with the clerk of the council. Petitions shall contain the signatures of at least ten elector-residents of each voting precinct in the area under consideration. A map and legal description of the area shall be included with the petitions.
B. After petition signatures have been verified by the ((records and licensing services)) elections division, the council shall set a date of hearing. Legal notice of the hearing shall be published once in the official county newspaper and once in a newspaper of general circulation within the proposed area, at least ten days prior to the hearing.
C. If the council finds the formation or dissolution of the petitioned area to be beneficial to the public health, safety and general welfare, it shall establish such a no shooting area by ordinance. The council shall consider, but is not limited to, the location, terrain and surrounding ((land)) land use of the petitioned area.
D. It is the intent of the council that the geographic description of no shooting
areas as defined in this chapter remain in effect even after voter precinct boundaries change.