Drafter
Clerk 03/03/2026
Title
AN ORDINANCE declaring a one-year moratorium prohibiting the acceptance of applications for the establishment of new or expansion of existing detention facilities, as primary or accessory uses; establishing a work plan; and declaring an emergency.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. King County has the authority, under constitutional police powers, home rule authority, and the Washington state Growth Management Act, including chapter 36.70A RCW, to establish a moratorium to preclude the acceptance of certain new development applications while the county studies related land use issues.
B. Detention facilities have been proliferating around the country.
C. One detention facility in the Puget Sound area is in Tacoma. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") currently contracts with the GEO Group, Inc., to operate the Northwest ICE Processing Center ("the NWIPC"). The NWIPC has a capacity of one thousand five hundred seventy-five beds. Statistics published by ICE show that the NWIPC's average daily population grew throughout 2025 and, as of January 2026, the facility was near ninety-percent capacity.
D. Reports and firsthand accounts have surfaced since 2020 that practices at the NWIPC have resulted in inadequate living conditions for individuals detained. Attempts at oversight at this facility have been met with resistance, as governmental officials, health inspectors, and organizations have been denied access to the NWIPC.
E. The King County code does not currently define the term "detention facilities," though jails and jail farms are defined in the code.
F. The King County code allows jails, which, by definition, must be government-operated, with a special use permit in the R, NB, CB, RB, O, and I zones.
G. One jail, Echo Glen Children's Center, currently operates in unincorporated King County. As Echo Glen Children's Center is located in an RA zone, it is clas...

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