Growth Management

1. Growth Management

2. General Planning Process Visioning Setting Goals & Objectives Revising Plans Developing alternatives “Preferred Alternatives” Monitoring & Evaluation Implementation

3. Major Areas in WA GMA • Jobs (Economy) • Housing • Transportation • Critical Areas, Resource Protection • Endangered Species Act: Salmon listing • Stream protection • Forestland and Farmland protection • Open Space • Rural Areas

4. GM via 5Cs • Compact urban development • Comprehensive planning • Consistency • Concurrency • Citizen Participation

5. Rural (counties) Parks & Rec. Solar Energy Economic Development Conservation Shorelines Subarea Plans Utilities Capital Facilities Transportation Housing Land Use F L U M Community Comprehensive Plan GMA Plan Elements 1990 Mandatory Elements RCW 36.70A.070 Mandatory Elements added in 1995/2002 Optional Elements RCW 36.70A.080

6. JURISDICTIONS IN WA GMA Puget Sound WA State Region Counties Kitsap Snohomish King Pierce Cities Local Local Local

7. Countywide Planning Policies (CPP) • A framework for all local governments in a county • ex. King County GMPC (Growth Management Planning Council) adopts CPP

8. Countywide Planning Policies (CPP) (cont.) • UGA designation • Continuous & orderly development providing urban services • Siting major public capital facilities • Urban water and sewer systems

9. Countywide Planning Policies (CPP) (cont.) • Transportation strategies & facilities • Affordable housing needs and distribution • Economic development and employment

10. Multicounty Planning Policies (MPPs) • Required for King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties and cities • Puget Sound Regional Council develops and adopts MPPs

11. Comprehensive Plan • According to CPP, cities prepare their comprehensive plans. The urban growth areas should accommodate 20 years growth. • Local governments should update their CPs every seven years for fast-growing areas (>2%, >50,000) • Submit their CPs to WA state CTED (Community Trade, Economic Development) for review (Dept. of Commerce).

12. 3 Growth Management Hearings Board Eastern WA GMHB Central WA GMHB Western WA GMHB http://www.gmhb.wa.gov/

13. Sanctions for Noncompliance • Losing $$$ • Eligibility for state public works project loans • Water pollution control facility grants • Motor vehicle fuel tax • Transportation improvement & arterial accounts • Sales & use taxes • Liquor profit and excise taxes • Power to collect real estate excise taxes

14. Planning and Citizen Participation • Goal-Driven Approach • Set long range (~20 years) goals covering wide range of issues • Vision-Driven Approach • Strong community leadership • Issue-Driven Approach • One issue at a time, e.g. traffic management in downtown core, homeless shelters, mixed use development, etc.

15. Techniques for Participation • Public Hearings • Most formal and traditional way of citizen participation • Planning departments send out “Notice” with issues of concern, dates and places of public hearing

16. Techniques for Participation • Stakeholder group meetings • (quasi-formal) interest group meetings: neighborhood groups, homeowners’ associations, environmental groups, business associations (Chamber of Commerce, economic development groups, etc.) • Good for issue-oriented meetings

17. Techniques for Participation • Focus Group meetings • Inviting a group of people who are representative of the community • Useful for issue identification, drafting goals and objectives: e.g. deciding rail stations or highway routes

18. GMA requires • “broad dissemination of proposals and alternatives, opportunity for written comments, public meetings after effective notice, provision for open discussion, communication programs, information services, and consideration of and response to public comments” (RCW 37.70A.140)

19. Open Public Meetings Act • “All meetings of the governing body of a public agency shall be open and public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the governing body of a public agency, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” (RCW 42.30.030)

20. Open Public Meetings Act(cont.) • Cities and counties publish meeting dates via newspapers and newsletters • Identify timeline and process for CP and zoning amendments: enough time to gather feedback from neighbor cities/counties • Local governments should adopt creative strategies for community outreach, e.g. senior citizens, youth, minority populations

21. Smart Growth, WA State Growth Management Act, Urban Growth Boundaries

22. 10 Principles of SG 1) mixed land uses; 2) take advantage of compact building design; 3) create housing opportunities and choices; 4) create walkable communities; 5) foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place; 6) preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas;

23. 10 Principles of SG (cont) 7) strengthen and direct development towards existing communities 8) provide a variety of transportation choices 9) make development decisions predictable, fair and cost-effective 10) encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

24. SG: Bottom-up approach Smart Growth (SG) approach began as a bottom-up measure based on market incentives (partnerships, education, priority funding), and became a nation-wide movement • GMA is a top-down, command and control approach. It depends on locality, or state.

25. SG vs GMA

26. 1) Housing 2) Transportation and Land Use 3) Natural resources 4) Energy 5) Health and safety 6) Historic preservation 7) Infrastructure 8) Salmon-friendly land uses 9) Economic vitality 10) Livable communities 11) Regional and state coordination 12) Open space and greenbelts How do Washington’s SG elements differ from GMA goals? SG elements vs. GMA goals: WA

27. 14 Goals of GMA Planning Goals (RCW 36.70A.020) 1. Encourage urban development in urban areas 2. Reduce sprawl, reduce low-density development 3. Encourage multimodal transportation systems 4. Encourage affordable housing 5. Encourage economic development 6. Provide just compensation for private property 7. Process permit applications timely and fairly

28. 14 Goals of GMA Planning Goals (RCW 36.70A.020) 8. Maintain and enhance natural resource-based industries 9. Encourage the retention of open space & development of recreational opportunities 10. Protect the environment and enhance the state’s quality of life 11. Encourage citizen participation in planning process 12. Encourage the availability of public facilities & services 13. Identify and encourage historic preservation 14. Shoreline management act

29. Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs)

30. Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) • Draws lines/areas around the city to promote development inside the boundary • Most rigid form of growth management 1. Limits long-term urban land consumption (20+ years) 2. Politically difficult to change the boundary

31. Merits of UGB • Sets a limit to continuous sprawl • Promotes densification and in-fill development • Facilitates mixed-use projects • May help to promote more transit use

32. Merits of UGB • Influences consumer choice: • Facilitates some higher density development (“higher density” is a relative term by international standards) • Fosters variety of housing types

33. Merits of UGB (cont.) • Changes Developers’ Attitudes • Cannot go anywhere else within a metropolitan region, if all cities have similar restrictions • More effective with Statewide GM rather than city-by-city cases (e.g. CA), where developers can find pro-growth communities

34. Drawbacks of UGB • Leapfrogdevelopment beyond the boundary, adding to commuting times • UGBs alone do not address the issue of adequate public facility provision (heavy traffic, school overcrowding, overloaded public services, etc) within the boundary

35. Drawbacks of UGB (cont.) • Inequity among property rights holders inside and out • Knaap argues that UGBs can never constrain development because of the 20-year land requirement

36. BOUNDARY TYPES • Types • UGB (Urban Growth Boundary): Oregon (1973/1979) • UGA (Urban Growth Area): Washington (1990) • Urban District: Hawaii • 3 Districts: Urban/agricultural/conservation • Greenbelt: Boulder, CO (1992) • Land acquisition via sales tax increase • cf. London , since 1947; Seoul, Korea, since 1971)

37. Washington State Puget Sound Region

38. London

39. Seoul, Korea

40. UGB and Housing Prices • UGB’s effects on housing prices are not statistically significant (although they could be as high as $15-21K)

41. Smart Growth

42. Ten Principles Of Smart Growth • Mix land uses • Take advantage of compact building design • Create a range of housing opportunities and choices • Create walkable neighborhoods • Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strongsense of place • Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas • Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities • Provide a variety of transportation choices • Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective • Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions http://www.smartgrowth.org/about/principles/default.asp (Sustainable Communities Network)

43. 1992 Planning Act • The Economic Growth, Resource Protection, and Planning Act of 1992 • All municipalities prepare comprehensive plans including land use, community facilities, etc. • They should include goals, objectives, standards to protect “sensitive areas” • Streams and their buffers; • 100-year floodplains; • Habitats of threatened and endangered species; and • Steep slopes

44. 7 visions 1. Development to be concentrated in suitable areas (PFAs; Priority Funding Areas) 2. Sensitive Areas to be protected 3. In rural areas, growth would be directed to existing population centers and protected resource areas (RL; Rural Legacy) 4. Stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay and the land is a universal ethic 5. Conservation of resources, including a reduction in resource consumption, is practiced 6. To assure the achievement of [the] above, economic growth would be encouraged and regulatory mechanisms streamlined 7. Funding mechanisms directed to achieve this vision (especially the PFAs)

45. POLICY INSTRUMENTS 1. Priority Funding Areas 2. Rural Legacy 3. Brownfield Cleanup 4. Live Near Your Work 5. Job Creation Tax Credits

46. 1. Priority Funding Areas • Provides infrastructure subsidies to areas within city boundaries or using other criteria • every municipality, as they existed in 1997; • Inside the Washington Beltway and the Baltimore Beltway; • designated areas • enterprise zones • neighborhood revitalization areas • heritage areas • existing industrial land • http://www.mdp.state.md.us/pfamap.htm

47. http://www.mdp.state.md.us/localplan/baci/Baci.pdf

48. Portland UGB

49. PFAs & UGBs: Are they different? • Designation (& revision) of PFAs is a politically lengthy process, with no clear-cut approach • PFAs are more likely to leak • No way to prevent urban development outside PFAs • Also, no state subsidies provided • Local govts. (& private) funds might subsidize the costs of urban services outside PFAs

50. PFAs & UGBs • Sprawl continues in PFAs • Development patterns within PFAs will continue to sprawl Cf. Oregon UGBs need to have 20-year land supply (every 5-yr revision); hence, they never have shortage of developable lands for urban uses • Portland in 1990s: 50% Pop growth, 30% land area growth • UGB’s influence on avg lot sizes and mixed uses were minimal (Song & Knaap, 2002)