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AN ORDINANCE relating to land segregation and comprehensive planning, requiring that only nonbuilding lots or tracts be created in the Forest Production District; and adding a new section to King County Code Title 19A.
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PREAMBLE:
For the purposes of effective land use planning and regulation, the King County Council makes the following legislative findings:
1. King County has adopted the 1994 King County Comprehensive Plan to meet the requirements of the Washington state Growth Management Act (GMA).
2. The GMA requires that the Comprehensive Plan and development regulations be subject to continuing review and evaluation by the county.
King County has approved annual amendments to correct technical errors and to make changes that do not require a substantive policy change or alter the urban growth line.
3. King County has performed its first comprehensive four-year cycle review of the Comprehensive Plan and development regulations. As a result of the review, King County is amending the 1994 Comprehensive through passage of the 2000 King County Comprehensive Plan.
4. The GMA requires that King County adopt development regulations, to be consistent with and implement the Comprehensive Plan.
5. The changes to the King County land segregation code, K.C.C. Title 19A, contained in this ordinance are needed to bring K.C.C. Title 19A into conformance with the 2000 King County Comprehensive Plan, as required by the GMA. As such, they bear a substantial relationship to, and are necessary for, the public health, safety and general welfare of King County and its residents.
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The King County Council has determined that the forest production district is King County's designation of forest lands of long term commercial significance under the Growth Management Act.
2. Permanent residences within the forest production district conflict with long term commercial forestry because of frequent road use, demand for residential services and increased fire risk. Therefore, a proliferation of residences will make continued commercial forestry more difficult.
3. Areas of the forest production district are converting from commercial forestry to residential use as evidenced by recent changes in ownership within the forest production district from forest managers to residential owners, as well as the number of building permits issued in recent years.
4. Most of the private ownership in the forest production district remains in large blocks under forest management, but there is potential for approximately three thousand additional residential lots if the remaining private forest land were segregated to eighty-acre parcels, which would allow residential building sites.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
NEW SECTION. SECTION 1. There is hereby added to K.C.C. Title 19A a new section to read as follows:
Segregation of land in the forest production district. Any segregation of land, including divisions described in K.C.C. 19A.08.040B, which is located in the forest production district, as identified in the King County Comprehensive Plan, shall comply with the following:
A. Only nonbuilding lots or tracts shall be created;
B. For a division of land approved through a plat, short plat or binding site plan, a note shall be placed on the plat, short plat or binding site plan stating that the nonbuilding lots or tracts created are not considered building sites for purposes of residential dwelling construction; and
C. For a division of land described in K.C.C. 19A.08.040B, a notice on title shall be filed with the King County records and elections division stating that the nonbuilding lots or tracts created are not considered building sites for purposes of residential dwelling construction. The notice shall run with the land. The applicant shall pay the recording fee, which must be collected before approval of the exempted segregation.
SECTION 2. Severability. If any provision of this ordinance or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the ordinance or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.
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Seattle Times October 11, 2000