Drafter
Clerk 11/08/2022
Title
AN ORDINANCE regarding the King County noxious weed control program; revising King County noxious weed control program assessments; amending Ordinance 13325, Sections 5, 6 and 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.200.460 and 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 2018 under Ordinance 18821, there have been increases in the costs of providing noxious weed prevention and control services, increases in the number and acreage of noxious weed sites in King County that are mandated for control by chapter 17.10 RCW, and new species of noxious weeds discovered in King County. In addition, widespread nonregulated invasive weeds are creating increasingly negative impacts to farms, forests and urban greenspaces, and additional resources are needed to achieve higher levels of control of these damaging species through incentives and landowner assistance, especially to underserved communities and in areas being protected by conservation efforts.
3. The King County noxious weed control budget for 2023 and 2024 is included in the King County budget for 2023 and 2024, 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 five dollars and thirty-two cents to six dollars and twenty cents per parcel and from thirty-eight cents to forty-four and twenty-nine one thousandth cents per acre on all property not classified as forest land, which shall be assessed annually. The noxious weed control program assessment for property classified as forest land, as defined in RCW 84.33.035, that is used solely for the planting, growing or harvesting of trees and that is typified by canopies so dense as to prohibit the growth of an understory, shall be increased...

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