Critical Areas Ordinance monitoring

Quality assurance project plan for regulatory effectiveness monitoring for developing rural areas

The Metropolitan King County Council on October 25, 2004, approved the Critical Areas package, which is three pieces of legislation intended to help protect human heath and safety and a variety of plant and animal life and habitat. Critical areas include marine and freshwater wetlands and aquatic areas, such as streams and lakes, wildlife conservation areas (mainly nesting sites for high priority bird species) and areas critical for protecting human health and safety including aquifers used for water supplies, floodplains, and steep slopes. King County's updated Critical Areas Ordinance ("CAO"), mandated by the Washington Growth Management Act of 1997 (Chapter 36.70A RCW) went into effect on January 1, 2005. To read more about critical areas, including a full list of the critical areas, see both the King County Council’s Critical Areas Ordinance web page, or the Department of Development and Environmental Services web page.

The “Quality Assurance Project Plan for Regulatory Effectiveness Monitoring for Developing Rural Areas” study (QAPP for short) was designed to guide a multi-year study to assess whether the regulations are effective.

The purpose of this study is to develop an approach for effectiveness monitoring and apply that approach to evaluate the effectiveness of current land use regulations to inform the 2012 Growth Management Act (GMA) regulatory review. Our goals are to establish and implement a framework for quantifying environmental responses to development implemented under new (2005) land use regulations and identify where the regulations may be ineffective and need to be changed. Specific objectives are to: (1) Track regulatory implementation and degree of compliance in parcels developed under new regulations; (2) Quantify environmental change in catchments as development proceeds; (3) Determine empirical response relationships; (4) Provide findings to King County Council; and (5) Disseminate framework and results to other appropriate audiences, including other Puget Sound counties. Our working hypothesis is: “If regulations are not effective, then indicators of hydrology, water quality, biology, and stream complexity in treatment sites will respond to land use following the new regulations.” Response will be tracked relative to reference sites and to estimates of the amount of potential cumulative impact (PCI) of all known actions in a given catchment.

Read the full document here: QAPP (PDF, 2MB).

See a map of the study areas here: Watershed map (PDF, 31MB).

County code

The CAO has been incorporated into the King County Code. The King County Code is available online at www.kingcounty.gov/council/legislation/kc_code.aspx. The CAO has been codified as follows:

Critical Areas--KCC Chapter 21A.24 (PDF*, 236KB)
- King County Basin and Shoreline Conditions Map (PDF*, 1.3MB)
- King County Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas Map (PDF*, 2.9MB)

Stormwater--KCC Chapters 9.04 and 9.12 (PDF*, 246KB)

Clearing and Grading--KCC Chapter 16.82 (PDF*, 657KB)

Additional information

2011 American Fisheries Society – Quantifying land cover change, presented by Ray Timm

2011 American Fisheries Society – Implications of historic land cover changes, presented by Gino Lucchetti

2011 American Fisheries Society – Overview: Assessing regulatory effectiveness, presented by Gino Lucchetti

2010 KC Spring Science Seminar – Project overview by Lucchetti

2009 KC Fall Science Seminar – Overview of our spatially-explicit approach to assess changes by Timm

2009 – KC Fall Science Seminar – Historic influences by Michalak (an early version of the 2010 Water Center Annual Review presentation)

2008 UW Water Center – First formal presentation by Lucchetti