09/02/2008: "Supreme Court Rules"

In a unanimous decision, the The Washington Supreme Court has once again ruled on land use issues that will shape future actions by San Juan County as it works to update and write new land use regulations under the Growth Management Act (GMA).

The case is related to what a county can and cannot do to come into compliance with the GMA, and to what extent those actions, and past legislation, can be subject to appeal.

The Court used some of the same logic it had applied in the other recent court case, when it stated an opinion of the importance of finality in land use:

if there were not finality, no owner of land would ever be safe in proceeding with development... . If we were to allow a party to challenge every aspect of a comprehensive plan for GMA compliance every seven years, the floodgates of litigation initially closed by the 60-day appeal period would be reopened and subjected to a new barrage of challenges because a party could argue it is challenging a county's failure to update a provision, rather than reasserting its claim against the original plan.

Some of the key points of the decision are that the Growth Board cannot Impose "Bright Line" standards for local plans; that there must be a “Presumption of Validity” for local plans; that counties have a broad discretion when they designate rural densities and Urban Growth Areas, when they review existing plans, and when they write new regulations that are affected by new GMA requirements.