Drafter
Clerk 12/05/2015
Title
AN ORDINANCE establishing additional sending site criteria to transfer development rights from land in public ownership; amending Ordinance 13274, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.37.020 and Ordinance 13733, Section 10, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.37.110; and declaring an emergency.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The county sometimes purchases land in rural, unincorporated King County that has not been fully developed and has the capability to provide open space land for the production of food, fiber and forest crops. While purchasing the property is in the public interest, in unique circumstances retaining exclusive rights to the property may not provide the most economical benefit to the community. Returning the property, encumbered with a conservation easement to preserve the open space and provide for the potential of active agriculture or other uses compatible with the purposes of a conservation easement, may be the most economical and sustainable way of conserving the property.
2. In such instances, when the county purchases property for which it does not intend to retain exclusive rights, the development rights generated by subsequently encumbering the property with a conservation easement should issue and be transferred to the transfer of development rights ("TDR") bank to fund future acquisitions of development rights.
3. The Tall Chief acquisition presents such a unique opportunity. It was purchased with the intention of ecological protection and agriculture production.
4. A code clarification is appropriate to eliminate any ambiguity that the development rights generated from the reservation of a conservation easement from the conveyance of the Tall Chief parcel by the county may be issued to the TDR bank, which will preserve the potential of the county realizing approximately $600,000 from the sale of such development rights.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The county council finds as a fact and declares that an emergency exists and that this ordinance is necessary for the immediate preservation of public peace, health or safety or for the support of county government and its existing public institutions.
SECTION 2. Ordinance 13274, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.37.020 are hereby amended to read as follows:
A. For the purpose of this chapter, sending site means the entire tax lot or lots qualified under subsection B. of this section. Sending sites may only be located within rural or resource lands or urban separator areas with R-1 zoning, as designated by the King County Comprehensive Plan, and shall meet the minimum lot area for construction requirements in K.C.C. 21A.12.100 for the zone in which the sending site is located. Except as provided in K.C.C. 21A.37.110.C., or for lands zoned RA that are managed by the Washington state Department of Natural Resources as state grant or state forest lands, land in public ownership may not be sending sites. If the sending site consists of more than one tax lot, the lots must be contiguous and the area of the combined lots must meet the minimum lot area for construction requirements in K.C.C. 21A.12.100 for the zone in which the sending site is located. For purposes of this section, lots divided by a street are considered contiguous if the lots would share a common lot line if the street was removed; this provision may be waived by the interagency committee if the total acreage of a rural or resource sending site application exceeds one hundred acres. A sending site shall be maintained in a condition that is consistent with the criteria in this section under which the sending was qualified.
B. Qualification of a sending site shall demonstrate that the site contains a public benefit such that preservation of that benefit by transferring residential development rights to another site is in the public interest. A sending site must meet at least one of the following criteria:
1. Designation in the King County Comprehensive Plan or a functional plan as an agricultural production district or zoned A;
2. Designation in the King County Comprehensive Plan or a functional plan as forest production district or zoned F;
3. Designation in the King County Comprehensive Plan as rural residential, zoned RA-2.5, RA-5 or RA-10, and meeting the definition in RCW 84.34.020 of open space, farm and agricultural land, or timber land;
4. Designation in the King County Comprehensive Plan, or a functional plan as a proposed rural or resource area regional trail or rural or resource area open space site, through either:
a. designation of a specific site; or
b. identification of proposed rural or resource area regional trails or rural or resource area open space sites which meet adopted standards and criteria, and for rural or resource area open space sites, meet the definition of open space land, as defined in RCW 84.34.020;
5. Identification as habitat for federal listed endangered or threatened species in a written determination by the King County department of natural resources and parks, Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife, United States Fish and Wildlife Services or a federally recognized tribe that the sending site is appropriate for preservation or acquisition; or
6. Designation in the King County Comprehensive Plan as urban separator and zoned R-1.
C. For the purposes of the TDR program, acquisition means obtaining fee simple rights in real property, or a less than a fee simple right in a form that preserves in perpetuity the public benefit supporting the designation or qualification of the property as a sending site.
D. If a sending site has any outstanding code violations, the person responsible for code compliance should resolve these violations, including any required abatement, restoration, or payment of civil penalties, before a TDR sending site may be qualified by the interagency review committee created under K.C.C. 21A.37.070. However, the interagency may qualify and certify a TDR sending site with outstanding code violations if the person responsible for code compliance has made a good faith effort to resolve the violations and the proposal is in the public interest.
E. For lots on which the entire lot or a portion of the lot has been cleared or graded in accordance with a Class II, III or IV special forest practice as defined in chapter 76.09 RCW within the six years prior to application as a TDR sending site, the applicant must provide an affidavit of compliance with the reforestation requirements of the Forest Practices Act, and any additional reforestation conditions of their forest practice permit. Lots on which the entire lot or a portion of the lot has been cleared or graded without any required forest practices or county authorization, shall be not qualified or certified as a TDR sending site for six years unless the six-year moratorium on development applications has been lifted or waived or the landowner has a reforestation plan approved by the state Department of Natural Resources and King County.
SECTION 3. Ordinance 13733, Section 10, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.37.110 are hereby amended to read as follows:
A. The TDR bank may purchase development rights from qualified sending sites at prices not to exceed fair market value and to sell development rights at prices not less than fair market value. The TDR bank may accept donations of development rights from qualified TDR sending sites.
B. The TDR bank may purchase a conservation easement only if the property subject to the conservation easement is qualified as a sending site as evidenced by a TDR qualification report, the conservation easement restricts development of the sending site in the manner required by K.C.C. 21A.37.060 and the development rights generated by encumbering the sending site with the conservation easement are issued to the TDR bank at no additional cost.
C. ((If a conservation easement is acquired through a county park, open space, trail, agricultural, forestry or other natural resource acquisition program for a property that is qualified as a TDR sending site as evidenced by a TDR qualification report, any development rights generated by encumbering the sending site with the conservation easement may be issued to the TDR bank so long as there is no additional cost for the development rights.)) Any development rights, generated by encumbering property with a conservation easement, may be issued to the TDR bank if:
1.a. The conservation easement is acquired through a county park, open space, trail, agricultural, forestry or other natural resource acquisition program for a property that is qualified as a TDR sending site as evidenced by a TDR qualification report; or
b. the property is acquired by the county with the intent of conveying the property encumbered by a reserved conservation easement. The number of development rights generated by this reserved conservation easement shall be determined by the TDR qualification report; and
2. Under either subsection C.1.a. or b. of this section, there will be no additional cost to the county for acquiring the development rights.
D. The TDR bank may use funds to facilitate development rights transfers. These expenditures may include, but are not limited to, establishing and maintaining internet web pages, marketing TDR receiving sites, procuring title reports and appraisals and reimbursing the costs incurred by the department of natural resources and parks, water and land resources division, or its successor, for administering the TDR bank fund and executing development rights purchases and sales.
E. The TDR bank fund may be used to cover the cost of providing staff support for identifying and qualifying sending and receiving sites, and the costs of providing staff support for the TDR interagency review committee.
F. Upon approval of the TDR executive board, proceeds from the sale of TDR bank development rights shall be available for acquisition of additional development rights and as amenity funds to facilitate interlocal TDR agreements with cities in King
County. Amenity funds provided to a city from the sale of TDR bank development rights to that city are limited to one-third of the proceeds from the sale.