Oct. 6, 2008
Approved 2008 Comprehensive Plan promotes equity, predictability and environmental protections
King County Executive Ron Sims’ 2008 Comprehensive Plan update was approved today by the King County Council. This is the first of King County’s Comprehensive Plan updates to address global issues such as climate change and equity and social justice.
Executive Sims said, "I would like to thank the King County Council for their support of these critical issues, and for working with me to improve the services and environmental protections we are delivering to the citizens of King County. The Comp Plan has worked well for several years. These new changes will further support smart growth in this region for future generations."
The main policy changes approved today include:
Climate Change: This is one of the first comprehensive plans in the United States to fully integrate consideration of climate change into land use policies. A new policy giving King County authority to evaluate development proposals subject to the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) for their greenhouse gas emissions is included in this update.
Transportation Concurrency: This comprehensive plan update overhauls concurrency modeling practices, making the transportation concurrency process more streamlined and predictable. King County will no longer be conducting tests on individual development proposals. Instead, concurrency status is determined by broad geographic areas called travel sheds, which will be drawn to reflect where travel patterns share common characteristics. The concurrency status of all development proposals, including both residential and nonresidential, will be determined by looking at a single map which will be updated annually. This will result in greater certainty for prospective developers; they will now be able to simply consult an online map to determine whether or not their proposal will be able to obtain a concurrency certificate.
Equity and Social Justice: The King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative takes aim at inequities and injustices in King County. The King County Comprehensive Plan constitutes one of the first King County initiatives to outwardly address equity issues through policy development. This program includes:
- Developing and testing an equity impact assessment and review tool and incorporating the tool into decision-making;
- Collecting and publishing measures to highlight inequities and to mark progress in correcting them; and
- Beginning a community dialogue process, using a new PBS series “Unnatural Causes,” to increase awareness among community members of equity and social determinants of health and to spur corrective action through policy development.
One of the major site-specific amendments approved in the 2008 update concerns the Summit Pit property in Maple Valley being brought into the UGA: This amendment moved the UGA to incorporate the Summit Pit property and applied the UPD land use category (Urban Planned Development). The zoning placed on the property is now a UR-SO zone. This refers to Urban Reserve zoning with a Special District Overlay for Urban Planned Development. This classification allowed the property to move into the UGA while keeping it in “reserve” until the terms of a Joint Planning Agreement between King County and the City of Maple Valley can be negotiated.
For additional detail on King County’s 2008 Comprehensive Plan Update, please contact Paul Reitenbach, Senior Policy Analyst at 206-296-6705, or Paula Adams, DDES Public Information and Records Officer at 206-296-6682.