State reverses King County’s blanket rural land clearing regulations.

Lots of fireworks (literally, they’re on the home page) going on over at proprights.org as the State reverses King County’s land clearing law. I’m no lawyer, but reading through the decision it looks like the court laid on a pretty healthy smack-down on King County’s rural land clearing standards. The county set up these standards for environmental protection reasons, but these restrictions really rubbed land owners the wrong way - and they ‘lawyered up‘.

From what I can gather, it seems like the court said that King County mistakenly thought the Growth Management Act gave it the authority to set omnibus land clearing standards like these and that King County was also incorrect in thinking that the Growth Management Act gave it the power to override a state law which says you can’t ‘tax, fee, or charge’ tangible personal property

Anyway, does this mean that rural land owners can start paving over creeks on their property tomorrow? Or that any new development in rural King County can go ahead unchecked? No. But it looks like it does open the door to new rural development proposals that previously were barred by King County. I don’t know, but if you ask me it looks like this decision favors exurb development and will create more places to put your yellow Urban Land Institute Legos.

For those of you who like looking at recently repealed county code, here’s a snippet of King County’s clearing standards which are going off the books.

Clearing standards for individual lots in the rural zone.
A. Except as otherwise provided in this section, in the RA zone the following standards apply to clearing on individual lots:
1. For lots one and one-quarter acre or smaller:
a. clearing shall not exceed the greater of:
(1) the amount cleared before January 1, 2005, or cleared under a complete clearing permit application filed before October 25, 2004, in
(2) fifty percent of the lot area; or
(3) seven thousand square feet.
b. any clearing required for the construction of access, utilities and septic systems shall not be counted towards the amount of clearing allowed under this subsection;
2. For lots greater than one and one-quarter acres and up to fives acres in area, clearing shall not exceed the greater of:
a. the amount legally cleared before January 1, 2005, or cleared under a complete clearing permit application filed before October 25, 2004, in accordance with previous county regulations; or
b. fifty percent of lot area;
3. For lots greater than fives [sic] acres, clearing shall not exceed the greater of:
a. the amount legally cleared before January 1, 2005, or cleared under a complete clearing permit application filed before October 25, 2004, in accordance with previous county regulations;
b. two and one-half acres, or
c. thirty-five percent of lot area; and
4. For lots greater than one and one-quarter acre in either the Bear Creek basin, the Issaquah Creek basin and the May Creek basin, clearing shall not exceed the greater of:
a. the amount legally cleared before January 1, 2005, or cleared under a complete clearing permit application filed before October 25, 2004, in accordance with previous county regulations; or
b. thirty-five percent of lot area;
B. The standards in subsection A. of this section shall not apply if more restrictive standards apply through:
1. The Critical Areas Code, K.C.C. chapter 21A.24, and its adopted public rules;
2. Property-specific development standards or special district overlays under K.C.C. chapter 21A.38; or
3. Critical drainage area designations identified by adopted public rule.