Title
AN ORDINANCE ratifying and confirming in all respects Ordinance 15883 that was introduced on July 16, 2007, and adopted as amended by the metropolitan King County council on July 30, 2007; and declaring an emergency.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The Growth Management Act ("GMA"), Countywide Planning Policies ("CPPs") and King County Comprehensive Plan ("KCCP") require the delineation and protection of valuable and increasingly limited agricultural resource lands and supports regulations that serve to encourage the continuation of agriculture land uses.
B. King County has identified and designated a number of Agricultural Production Districts including the Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District.
C. The Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District, at fourteen thousand five hundred eighty-one acres, is the single, largest agricultural production district in King County and historically has had a very productive agricultural industry.
D. The Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District is regularly inundated by flood waters and has experienced six of the eight largest flood events on record in the last twenty-one years, with the likelihood of more-frequent occurrences in the future.
E. These flood water levels are often increased by a number and variety of factors, such as storm water from development on the uplands that drain into the Snoqualmie valley.
F. The Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District is distinct from the other designated agricultural production districts of King County in that a significant majority of the Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District is located within the one-hundred-year floodplain.
G. The regular occurrence of flooding has greatly impacted agriculture within the Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District due to the lack of elevated farm pads that provide safe havens for farm animals and on which farm pr...
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