Growth Law Reform Stalls In Olympia Legislators Seeking Changes Aren’t Well-Organized

Another week of hearings on the state’s Growth Management Act did little to advance legislation to reform it.

The law requires local governments to plan for growth expected over the next 20 years. Spokane officials are in the process of defining urban boundaries that will determine where growth will be allowed.

This week, the Senate Government Operations Committee, chaired by Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, heard a series of bills similar to ones aired before the House Government Reform and Land Use Committee last week.

But the proposals to repeal the law, limit the authority of growth management hearings boards and allow counties to opt out of the act were overshadowed by a report recommending only minor changes in the law.

The Land Use Study Commission report released last week suggests changes such as expanding the definition of the term “rural” and allowing hearings board rulings to be appealed to Superior Court.

The state hearings boards mediate disputes over local government plans to implement the growth law.

The commission’s report was sent to Gov. Gary Locke, who is expected to wrap the recommendations into legislation next week.

That bill may be the only reform that passes this year, said McCaslin, a Growth Management Act critic. “I don’t think we can go too far from it,” he said.

Lawmakers seeking changes in the law aren’t well-organized. Some, such as McCaslin, want to scrap the law altogether. Others want only to limit the authority of hearings boards or to allow counties to opt out of the planning process.

Some appear ready to wait for another legislative session before enacting greater reforms.

“I don’t think there is overwhelming, enthusiastic support for the Land Use Study Commission report,” said Rep. Jack Cairnes, R-Renton. But, he added, “A lot of people see that as a small step in the right direction and better than nothing.”

McCaslin’s bill, SB5051, would allow local governments to implement comprehensive land-use plans even if they are ruled invalid by the growth management hearings boards.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, said she wants the boards to put greater emphasis on mediating disputes, but she said they should retain the power to invalidate comprehensive plans.

“I don’t want to take power away from them,” she said. “If we do that, we might as well get rid of them altogether.”

McCaslin said Locke might allow an opt-out clause for counties with fewer than 75,000 people.

In the House, Cairnes is banking on an endorsement from the Washington State Association of Counties to push HB1148, which would change hearings boards’ rulings to recommendations.

, DataTimes