Rules county not compliant with state growth law

By MIKE JOHNSTON
senior writer
Ellensburg Daily Record
A state growth-management board on Monday severely criticized several elements of Kittitas County’s comprehensive land-use plan — calling them “clearly erroneous” and failing to follow state growth rules — and ordered the county to bring them into compliance with the state’s Growth Management Act by Feb. 18.

One of the major findings against the county government was that it improperly allows urban-type lot and housing densities in rural areas with its three-acre zoning, in violation of the Growth Management Act, but the state board didn’t invalidate those zoning provisions. “The county does not protect its rural character and does permit low-density sprawl throughout much of the rural area, all contrary ...” to the GMA, according to the ruling by the three member Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board based in Yakima.

The state board did invalidate the county commissioners’ approval last year to expand the urban growth area around Ellensburg by 305 acres and enlarge the city of Kittitas, UGA by 290 acres because the county failed to do a facilities plan for the acreages and didn’t prepare a land-quantity analysis.

The board also threw out a decision by commissioners that allowed 183 acres designated as commercial agricultural lands to be redesignated as rural, which allows home site development.  The board said the county failed to do an analysis to support the lands being taken out of the commercial ag designation, a status that protects them from development.

By designating the lands, the state board ruled, the county “substantially interferes with the goals of the GMA because it fails to preserve and protect agricultural lands within the county.” A comprehensive landuse plan sets policies and goals on how the county will guide growth and development in the noncity areas of the county, and is the foundation for zoning and subdivision rules.

The state board’s ruling was the result of two appeals filed earlier this year against the county’s 2006 updated plan, one by three citizen land-use advocacy groups — the Kittitas County Conservation Coalition, Ridge of Upper County and the statewide Futurewise organization — and the other by the state Department of Community, Trade & Economic Development with the permission of Gov. Chris Gregoire.

At the core of the appeals was the contention that the county’s three-acre zoning outside designated urban growth areas, a zone that allows a minimum three acre lots and even smaller with cluster platting, was hurting rural, agricultural and other open-space lands with urban-style development. The groups and the state agency contend the smallest lot size in rural areas must be no smaller than five acres. The state hearings board didn’t formally invalidate the county’s use of threeacre zoning, but ruled that the densities permitted by Agricultural-3 and Rural-3 were “clearly erroneous” and prohibited by GMA based on past decisions by the two other state hearings boards.

It also ruled that improper urban-type densities for lots and housing in rural areas were allowed by the county’s urban growth nodes in Ronald, Easton, Thorp, Snoqualmie Pass and Vantage.

The state board ruled, in connection with the threeacre zoning provisions, that the county failed to have a variety of rural densities that comply with GMA. According to other rulings by the state board in its 87- page decision:
• The county failed to set enforceable criteria to guide the amendment of the zoning code and to determine when and where rezone applications should be approved.
• The county failed to review and adopt proper designations consistent with GMA for its urban growth nodes.
• The county allowed improper lot densities in the Gold Creek resort near Hyak at Snoqualmie Pass.
• The county failed to revisit and revise its development regulations, specifically performance based cluster platting and other revisions.
• The county failed to conduct a proper area-wide or countywide analysis of agricultural lands to determine what criteria should be used to allow them to be taken out of commercial ag status.

Other entities intervening in the appeal action in support of Kittitas County were the Building Industry Association of Washington, Central Washington Home Builders Association, Mitchell Williams doing business as M.F. Williams Construction Inc., Teanaway Ridge LLC and the Kittitas County Farm Bureau.

Ellensburg Daily Record, August 23, 2007 http://www.kvnews.com/articles/2007/08/23/news/doc46cdd928693d5144704380.txt