Title 36 — Title 36 COUNTIES

(1)(a) Each comprehensive land use plan and development regulations shall be subject to continuing review and evaluation by the county or city that adopted them. Except as otherwise provided, a county or city shall take legislative action to review and, if needed, revise its comp…

As part of the review required by RCW 36.70A.130(1), a county or city shall review its mineral resource lands designations adopted pursuant to RCW 36.70A.170 and mineral resource lands development regulations adopted pursuant to RCW 36.70A.040 and 36.70A.060. In its review, the c…

Each county and city that is required or chooses to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 shall establish and broadly disseminate to the public a public participation program identifying procedures providing for early and continuous public participation in the development and amendment of co…

Development regulations to implement comprehensive plans under this chapter that are newly developed, updated, or amended after January 1, 2025, must allow for the siting of organic materials management facilities in the areas identified in RCW 70A.205.040(3)(a)(i) to the extent …

Each county and city that is required or chooses to prepare a comprehensive land use plan under RCW 36.70A.040 shall identify lands useful for public purposes such as utility corridors, transportation corridors, landfills, sewage treatment facilities, stormwater management facili…

Each county and city that is required or chooses to prepare a comprehensive land use plan under RCW 36.70A.040 shall identify open space corridors within and between urban growth areas. They shall include lands useful for recreation, wildlife habitat, trails, and connection of cr…

The legislature recognizes that the preservation of urban greenbelts is an integral part of comprehensive growth management in Washington. The legislature further recognizes that certain greenbelts are subject to adverse possession action which, if carried out, threaten the compr…

(1) On or before September 1, 1991, each county, and each city, shall designate where appropriate:(a) Agricultural lands that are not already characterized by urban growth and that have long-term significance for the commercial production of food or other agricultural products;(b…

In accordance with RCW 36.70A.030, 36.70A.060, * 36.70A.1701, and 36.70A.130, playing fields and supporting facilities existing before July 1, 2004, on designated recreational lands shall be considered in compliance with the requirements of this chapter.[ 2005 c 423 s 5.]Notes:*R…

(1) In designating and protecting critical areas under this chapter, counties and cities shall include the best available science in developing policies and development regulations to protect the functions and values of critical areas. In addition, counties and cities shall give …

Wetlands regulated under development regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter shall be delineated in accordance with the manual adopted by the department pursuant to RCW 90.58.380.[ 1995 c 382 s 12.]

(1) A county or a city may use a variety of innovative zoning techniques in areas designated as agricultural lands of long-term commercial significance under RCW 36.70A.170. The innovative zoning techniques should be designed to conserve agricultural lands and encourage the agric…

It is the intent of the legislature that counties and cities required to adopt a comprehensive plan under RCW 36.70A.040(1) begin implementing this chapter on or before July 1, 1990, including but not limited to: (1) Inventorying, designating, and conserving agricultural, forest,…

(1) The department shall establish a program of technical and financial assistance and incentives to counties and cities to encourage and facilitate the adoption and implementation of comprehensive plans and development regulations throughout the state.(2) The department shall de…

(1)(a) The comprehensive plan of each county and city that is planning under RCW 36.70A.040 shall include a process for identifying and siting essential public facilities. Essential public facilities include those facilities that are typically difficult to site, such as airports,…

(1) The legislature recognizes that counties are regional governments within their boundaries, and cities are primary providers of urban governmental services within urban growth areas. For the purposes of this section, a "countywide planning policy" is a written policy statement…

(1) A county may authorize the siting in a rural area of a school that serves students from an urban area, even where otherwise prohibited by a multicounty planning policy, under the following circumstances:(a) The county has a population of more than eight hundred forty thousand…

In a county that chooses to site schools under RCW 36.70A.211, each school district within the county must participate in the county's periodic updates required by *RCW 36.70A.130(1)(b) by:(1) Coordinating its enrollment forecasts and projections with the county's adopted populat…

(1) This chapter does not prohibit a county planning under RCW 36.70A.040 from authorizing the extension of public facilities and utilities to serve a school sited in a rural area that serves students from a rural area and an urban area so long as the following requirements are m…

(1) Subject to the limitations in subsection (5) of this section, a county shall adopt, in consultation with its cities, countywide planning policies to establish a review and evaluation program. This program shall be in addition to the requirements of RCW 36.70A.110, 36.70A.130,…

(1) The department of commerce, through a contract with a land use and economics entity, shall develop guidance for local governments on the review and evaluation program in RCW 36.70A.215. The contract shall be with an entity experienced in serving private and public sector clie…

(1) (a) There is hereby created within the environmental and land use hearings office established by RCW 43.21B.005 a growth management hearings board for the state of Washington. The board shall consist of five members qualified by experience or training in pertinent matters per…

On July 1, 2011, the growth management hearings board is administratively consolidated into the environmental and land use hearings office created in RCW 43.21B.005. The chair of the growth management hearings board shall continue to exercise duties and responsibilities pursuant …

(1) Each petition for review that is filed with the growth management hearings board shall be heard and decided by a regional panel of growth management hearings board members. Regional panels shall be constituted as follows:(a) Central Puget Sound region. A three-member central …

The growth management hearings board shall be governed by the following rules on conduct and procedure:(1) Any board member may be removed for inefficiency, malfeasance, and misfeasance in office, under specific written charges filed by the governor. The governor shall transmit s…

(1) The growth management hearings board shall hear and determine only those petitions alleging either:(a) That, except as provided otherwise by this subsection, a state agency, county, or city planning under this chapter is not in compliance with the requirements of this chapter…

(1) All requests for review to the growth management hearings board shall be initiated by filing a petition that includes a detailed statement of issues presented for resolution by the board. The board shall render written decisions articulating the basis for its holdings. The bo…

(1) The superior court may directly review a petition for review filed under RCW 36.70A.290 if all parties to the proceeding before the board have agreed to direct review in the superior court. The agreement of the parties shall be in writing and signed by all of the parties to t…

(1) The board shall issue a final order that shall be based exclusively on whether or not a state agency, county, or city is in compliance with the requirements of this chapter, chapter 90.58 RCW as it relates to adoption or amendment of shoreline master programs, or chapter 43.2…

(1) The board may determine that part or all of a comprehensive plan or development regulations are invalid if the board:(a) Makes a finding of noncompliance and issues an order of remand under RCW 36.70A.300;(b) Includes in the final order a determination, supported by findings …

The court shall provide expedited review of a determination of invalidity or an order effectuating a determination of invalidity made or issued under *RCW 36.70A.300. The matter must be set for hearing within sixty days of the date set for submitting the board's record, absent a …

A request for review by the state to the growth management hearings board may be made only by the governor, or with the governor's consent the head of an agency, or by the commissioner of public lands as relating to state trust lands, for the review of whether: (1) A county or ci…

(1) Except as provided in subsections (5) through (7) of this section, comprehensive plans and development regulations, and amendments thereto, adopted under this chapter are presumed valid upon adoption.(2) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (4) of this section, the burd…

The legislature intends that the board applies a more deferential standard of review to actions of counties and cities than the preponderance of the evidence standard provided for under existing law. In recognition of the broad range of discretion that may be exercised by countie…

(1) After the time set for complying with the requirements of this chapter under RCW 36.70A.300(3)(b) has expired, or at an earlier time upon the motion of a county or city subject to a determination of invalidity under RCW 36.70A.300, the board shall set a hearing for the purpos…

(1) The department shall offer training to assist local governments in understanding findings of noncompliance from the growth management hearings board pursuant to RCW 36.70A.300 and 36.70A.330 and applying prior decisions of the board to ongoing planning efforts to avoid findin…

A county or city subject to an order of invalidity issued before July 27, 1997, by motion may request the board to review the order of invalidity in light of the section 14, chapter 429, Laws of 1997 amendments to RCW 36.70A.300, the section 21, chapter 429, Laws of 1997 amendmen…

Upon receipt from the board of a finding that a state agency, county, or city is in noncompliance under RCW 36.70A.330, or as a result of failure to meet the requirements of RCW 36.70A.210, the governor may either:(1) Notify and direct the director of the office of financial mana…

The governor may impose a sanction or sanctions specified under RCW 36.70A.340 on: (1) A county or city that fails to designate critical areas, agricultural lands, forestlands, or mineral resource lands under RCW 36.70A.170 by the date such action was required to have been taken;…

A county required or choosing to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 may establish a process as part of its urban growth areas, that are designated under RCW 36.70A.110, for reviewing proposals to authorize new fully contained communities located outside of the initially designated urban g…

(1) Counties that are required or choose to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 may permit master planned resorts which may constitute urban growth outside of urban growth areas as limited by this section. A master planned resort means a self-contained and fully integrated planned unit dev…

Counties that are required or choose to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 may include existing resorts as master planned resorts which may constitute urban growth outside of urban growth areas as limited by this section. An existing resort means a resort in existence on July 1, 1990, and…

A county required or choosing to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 may establish, in consultation with cities consistent with provisions of RCW 36.70A.210, a process for reviewing and approving proposals to authorize siting of specific major industrial developments outside urban growth a…

(1) In addition to the major industrial development allowed under RCW 36.70A.365, a county planning under RCW 36.70A.040 that meets the criteria in subsection (5) of this section may establish, in consultation with cities consistent with provisions of RCW 36.70A.210, a process fo…

(1) In addition to the major industrial development allowed under RCW 36.70A.365 and 36.70A.367, a county planning under RCW 36.70A.040 that meets the criteria in subsection (2) of this section may establish, in consultation with cities consistent with RCW 36.70A.210, a process f…

(1) The state attorney general shall establish by October 1, 1991, an orderly, consistent process, including a checklist if appropriate, that better enables state agencies and local governments to evaluate proposed regulatory or administrative actions to assure that such actions …

The department may extend the date by which a county or city is required to designate agricultural lands, forestlands, mineral resource lands, and critical areas under RCW 36.70A.170, or the date by which a county or city is required to protect such lands and critical areas under…

(1) The legislature intends to determine whether the environmental review process mandated under chapter 43.21C RCW may be enhanced and simplified, and coordination improved, when applied to comprehensive plans mandated by this chapter. The department shall undertake pilot projec…

A county or city governing body that adopts a moratorium, interim zoning map, interim zoning ordinance, or interim official control without holding a public hearing on the proposed moratorium, interim zoning map, interim zoning ordinance, or interim official control, shall hold a…

No county or city that plans or elects to plan under this chapter may enact or maintain an ordinance, development regulation, zoning regulation or official control, policy, or administrative practice which treats a residential structure occupied by persons with handicaps differen…