Drafter
Clerk 01/10/2003
title
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the executive to grant a conservation easement over Taylor Mountain forest to the state of Washington Department of Natural Resources, in exchange for a $2,800,000 federal forest legacy grant administered by the state Department of Natural Resources and declaring an emergency.
body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County is the owner of the approximately one-thousand-seven-hundred-acre Taylor Mountain forest, located at 276th Avenue Southeast in the unincorporated King County community of Hobart.
2. King County purchased the Taylor Mountain forest property in part with an interfund loan that it intended to repay with $2.8 million in funds anticipated to be received through a federal forest legacy grant.
3. The federal forest legacy grant program requires that King County exchange a conservation easement with the state of Washington, which administers the federal forest legacy grant program in Washington state, in consideration for the grant.
4. King County desires to put into effect the provisions of the federal forest legacy program upon certain property on Taylor Mountain forest, described in Attachment A (Property) to this ordinance, including the removal of development rights from the property for the purpose of: protecting forested lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses; promoting forest land uses including timber production; protecting environmentally important areas; and meeting multiple conservation opportunities, including protecting important scenic, cultural, fish, wildlife and recreational resources, riparian areas and ecological values.
5. The state of Washington has the authority to obtain interests in real property for the purpose of conservation, protection and preservation under RCW 64.04.130, and in accordance with the provisions of the forest legacy program authorized by the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, as amended by section 1217 of the Food...
Click here for full text