Section 365-196-700 - Background(1) For counties and cities subject to its terms, the act mandates the development of comprehensive plans and development regulations that meet statutory goals and requirements. These comprehensive plans and development regulations will take their place among existing laws relating to resource management, environmental protection, regulation of land use, utilities and public facilities. Many of these existing laws were neither repealed nor amended by the act.(2) The circumstances outlined in subsection (1) of this section place responsibility both on local growth management planners and on administrators of preexisting programs to work toward producing a single harmonious body of law.(3) The need to consider and recognize other laws should profoundly influence, limit, and shape planning and decision making under the act. At the same time, in recognition of the broad and fundamental changes intended by creation of the growth management scheme, prior programs should be interpreted and directed, to the maximum extent possible, in a manner consistent with the products of the comprehensive growth management system, as described in WAC 365-196-305, 365-196-500, and 365-196-510.(4) The far-reaching nature of the act and the wide variety of possible outcomes under its authority dictate that identification of all the points of contact between its products and other laws will have to be elaborated over time. The entire process of determining how the act fits into the overall legal framework will, of necessity, be an incremental one.(5) A conscious effort to address the requirements of other existing law is an essential step in adopting and amending local plans and regulations. This need poses an unprecedented challenge to all governmental entities - municipalities, counties, regional authorities, special purpose districts and state agencies - to communicate and collaborate. The act is a mandate to government at all levels to engage in coordinated planning and cooperative implementation.Wash. Admin. Code § 365-196-700
Statutory Authority: RCW 36.70A.050 and 36.70A.190. 10-03-085, § 365-196-700, filed 1/19/10, effective 2/19/10.