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AN ORDINANCE authorizing the executive to amend the 2007 interlocal agreement implementing a transfer of development rights program between King County and the city of Issaquah.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The Washington state Growth Management Act, codified at chapter 36.70A RCW, establishes a policy of directing growth and development into urban areas, protecting rural and resource land, and encouraging the use of innovative tools like transfer of development rights to accomplish these outcomes.
2. The Growth Management Act encourages the conservation of productive agricultural and forest lands and the retention of rural open space to conserve fish and wildlife habitat and enhance recreational opportunities.
3. King County adopted a transfer of development rights program in 2001 to permanently preserve rural and resource lands by transferring rural development potential into existing urban areas. Since 2001, the King County transfer of development rights program has helped to protect 142,586 acres of rural and resource lands in unincorporated King County.
4. In 2007, King County and the city of Issaquah entered into a transfer of development rights interlocal agreement to permanently protect salmon habitat and open space in the rural portions of the Issaquah creek watershed. This interlocal agreement was authorized through Ordinance 15693 and city of Issaquah Ordinance 2434. The interlocal agreement allows the transfer of seventy-five rural development rights from the rural portions of the Issaquah creek basin for increased residential and commercial density within designated transfer of development right receiving areas within the Issaquah city limits. In exchange for the city accepting additional density via transfers of rural development rights, King County provided the city with two hundred thousand dollars of conservation futures tax funds to acquire 2.4 acres of in-city open space along Issaquah creek, as authorized by Ordinance 1508...
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