Chapter 17.150
SPECIAL CONDITIONS–RURAL AREA DEVELOPMENT

Sections:

17.150.010    Purpose.

17.150.020    Special conditions.

17.150.030    Urban growth prohibited.

17.150.010 Purpose.

The purpose of this chapter is to assure the protection of rural character and the prevention of rural area sprawl or the creation of the need for urban services in rural areas. [Ord. 1170B, 2000]

17.150.020 Special conditions.

(1) Rural areas of more intense development. Any permit issued in a rural area of more intense development shall be subject to the following conditions:

(a) The use requested is consistent with the uses authorized in RCW 36.70A.070(5)(d)(i-iii).

(b) Public facilities and public services may be sized to serve the uses approved in (a) above, but shall not be sized to serve anticipated new development outside the designated area of more intense development. (This limitation does not apply to regional school and fire districts which serve a wider area, or existing water companies within existing service areas.)

(c) No new water facility, waste water facility, or storm water facility shall be sized to serve or extended to serve beyond the boundaries of the area of more intense development.

(d) New public facilities and public services shall be limited to that necessary to serve the special use or master plan area and shall not be made available to uses outside the approved area.

(e) No boundary change shall be made without an amendment of the comprehensive plan consistent with the requirements of RCW 36.70A.070(5)(d)(i-v).

(2) All rural area uses. General guidelines and constraints on rural area growth.

(a) A principal component of the Lewis County comprehensive plan is that significant portions of the Rural Development District will be limited in development potential due to critical areas, such as steep slopes, flood hazard areas, wetlands, tight soils, severely limiting septic approval, and very low population demand, as evidenced by Table 4.3 of the comprehensive plan (Dispersal of Rural Population Growth).

(b) To assure protection of rural character, the county shall map, monitor, and maintain records of population growth and new residential development in each of the specified districts.

(c) Where the development activity exceeds the projected annual growth rate in an identified subarea by 20% for three years, or where the total units within the district exceeds 80% of the specified units, the county shall conduct a rural area review of the subarea in question to determine if additional controls are required to limit development to rural development as defined in RCW 36.70A.030 as required by RCW 36.70A.070. The review shall be processed by the planning commission and county commissioners as a development regulation amendment, and the county shall consider the reason and nature of changing conditions and recommend changes necessary to respond to changing conditions and to preserve rural character and assure that urban growth or rural area sprawl will continue to be barred from the area.

(d) Until the county has completed its review of the district in question:

(i) No applications will be accepted for cluster development in Rural Development Districts or areas of more intense rural development in the area under review.

(ii) No application will be accepted for a new business in excess of home occupancy or home based industry, or commercial uses in excess of 5,000 square feet in the areas under review, outside resource lands or designated small town or rural industrial sites.

(iii) No application will be accepted for a tourist service area or Rural Area Industrial use which requires a master plan under Chapter 17.120 LCC in the area under review. [Ord. 1170B, 2000]

17.150.030 Urban growth prohibited.

(1) Purpose: The purpose of this section is to identify and define the criteria for distinguishing between rural development in rural areas and urban growth which is prohibited.

(2) Special conditions:

(a) In all rural area developments, including areas of more intense rural development authorized in RCW 36.70A.070(5) and all other areas outside UGAs, urban growth is prohibited. To accomplish this objective, the review authority (either the Administrator or hearing examiner, depending on the permit) shall find, as a condition of approval of any development outside urban growth areas:

(i) The project makes adequate provision to assure that the development is limited to rural development and rural governmental services.

(ii) That the project does not, directly or in concert with growth likely in the area affected, create a demand for urban governmental services or create “urban growth” prohibited outside urban growth areas.

(3) Special considerations:

(a) Rural development refers to development outside the urban growth area and outside designated long-term agricultural forest and mineral resource lands. Rural development can consist of a variety of residential uses and densities, including clustered residential development, at levels which are consistent with the preservation of rural character, and the requirements of the rural element. Rural development does not refer to agricultural or forest activities that may be conducted in rural areas.

(b) Rural development in Lewis County typically relies on existing facilities for school and fire, though existing facilities may be upgraded or expanded; and commonly uses existing small towns and cross road commercial facilities to meet local commercial needs.

(c) Outside areas of more intense rural development, rural residential development must be measured looking at the entire parcel and as a whole does not have total impervious surface greater than 10% of the overall property, and does not exceed 20% on any given parcel. Within small towns and crossroads commercial areas, the impervious surface criteria shall be that generally found in the specific LAMIRD for similar uses.

(d) Rural residential development does not adversely affect the overall productivity of resource industries located on designated long-term resource lands within a one mile radius of the development in question.

(e) Rural governmental services or rural services include those public services and public facilities historically and typically delivered at an intensity usually found in rural areas, and may include domestic water systems, fire and police protection services, transportation and public transit services, and other public utilities associated with rural development and not normally associated with urban areas. In rural infill areas, including small towns and industrial areas, public services and facilities may be that required to serve the proposed need, but limited as provided by RCW 36.70A.070(5)(a)(i-iv).

(f) In assessing the nature of rural development, the review authority (either the Administrator or hearing examiner, depending on the permit) shall use the facilities and services available in the three small towns or cross road commercial areas closest to the development pre-existing at the time of development, to determine “typical” services available in that rural area.

(g) Cluster developments are considered appropriate for rural development if the overall density of the land in the development and surrounding section does not exceed one unit per five acres gross density, the development can be accommodated with fire, school, and other rural public facilities without the need to relocate or create a new facility to serve the newly developing area, and can be served by commercial facilities within existing cross road commercial and small towns and does not create a new commercial center for the community. Upgrade of existing public facilities and services which does not require relocation is consistent with rural area development.

(h) Urban growth refers to that growth that makes intensive use of land for the location of buildings, structures, and impermeable surfaces to such a degree as to be incompatible with the primary use of land for the production of food or other agricultural products or fiber or the extraction of mineral resources, rural uses, rural development, and natural resource land designated pursuant to RCW 36.70A.170. A pattern of more intense rural development as defined in RCW 36.70A.070(5)(d) is not urban growth.

(i) Urban governmental services include those services and public facilities at an intensity historically found and typically provided in the incorporated cities of Lewis County, including storm and sanitary sewer systems, domestic water systems, street cleaning services, fire and police protection services, public transit services, and other public utilities associated with urban areas and normally not associated with rural areas.

(j) In Lewis County, the per capita capacity of city-owned facilities and services in Centralia, Chehalis, and Morton provide a guideline of urban levels of intensity. Services in Toledo, Winlock, Napavine, Mossyrock, and Pe Ell are more commonly at lower levels of service which range from levels comparable to the larger cities to levels commonly found in the large designated small towns. Such services may be considered, but are not determinative on the issue of urban governmental services.

(k) Indicia of urban growth include, but are not limited to, the following outside areas of more intense rural development: the extension of publicly owned sewer or water facilities by an incorporated municipality in Lewis County outside an urban growth boundary; overall residential densities of four units per acre or the development of more than 20% impervious surface of the total property developed; the development of a storm water control system operated by a municipal corporation outside an identified urban growth boundary; the creation of a need, either directly with the project or in concert with other development pending or likely to occur within 10 years for a new school site, fire station site, or commercial area to serve the development in the area.

(l) Indicia of urban growth in areas of more intense development would be the creation of a need for a publicly-owned wastewater treatment facility. Public facilities, services, and utilities of a size and scale commonly found in the small towns designated in the comprehensive plan, or needed under modern codes to serve businesses or industries commonly found in the small towns or existing rural industrial sites designated in the comprehensive plan, are not considered urban. [Ord. 1170B, 2000]