Drafter
Clerk 09/24/2025
Title
AN ORDINANCE regarding the King County noxious weed control program; revising King County noxious weed control program assessments; amending Ordinance 13325, Sections 1 and 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.670.200 and establishing an effective date.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. Since the last noxious weed parcel assessment increase in 2022 under Ordinance 19535, there have been increases in the costs of providing noxious weed prevention and control services and increases in the number and acreage of noxious weed sites in King County that are mandated for control by chapter 17.10 RCW. The noxious weed control program continues to discover higher numbers of infested sites each year. There have been ten additions to the State and County Noxious Weed List across eight hundred fifteen new sites since 2022, requiring research and new surveying techniques by county staff to ensure compliance with new regulations. In addition, widespread nonregulated invasive weeds are creating increasingly adverse effects to farms, forests, and urban greenspaces, and additional resources are needed to identify and achieve higher levels of control of these damaging species, especially to underserved communities and in areas being protected by conservation efforts.
2. There was no fee increase sought during the 2025 annual budget cycle, thereby utilizing a portion of the program's thirty-day fund reserve. The proposed rate restores the fund reserve and covers three years of inflationary increases through 2027 to sustain existing level of service. The King County noxious weed control budget for 2026 and 2027 is included in the King County budget for 2026 and 2027, submitted to the King County council by the King County executive, and based on this budget, an increase in the noxious weed control program assessment is warranted on all property not classified as forest land from six dollars and twenty cents to eight dollars and twelve and two one-thousandth...

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