Shoreline management

King County's beauty is no doubt characterized by its bounty of water bodies. King County has nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline along major lakes and rivers and Vashon-Maury Island. These shorelines provide habitat for fish and wildlife, places for public enjoyment and space for wide-ranging waterfront land uses.

Shoreline Master Program Update

On November 30, 2010, the King County Council passed and Executive Dow Constantine signed an ordinance updating King County's Shoreline Master Program Update. This is the first substantive update to King County's Shoreline Master Program since the program was originally adopted in 1978.  Please see the Adopted Shoreline Management Program for final documents.

The Shoreline Master Program approved by the Council consists of two major elements. One establishes the Goals and Policies for King County's Shoreline Master Program . These have been integrated into and will become Chapter 5 of the King County Comprehensive Plan. The other element consists of development regulations that implement the Goals and Policies. These will be added as a new chapter into the Title 21A of the King County Code.

The updated Shoreline Master Program does not take effect until approved by Washington State Department of Ecology. For information on the Ecology approval process, see their Shoreline Master Programs web page (external link).  Until Ecology approves the updated Shoreline Program, the 1977 Shoreline Master Program (Acrobat pdf) and Shoreline Regulations (Acrobat pdf) remain in effect.

The action by the County Council and the Executive is the culmination of a lengthy review process that began in July 2005. King County conducted several rounds of public review and comment before the proposal was submitted to the King County Council for its review. The County Council held a number of hearings prior to taking action. Previous drafts of the proposal are available for review.

Current King County Shoreline Master Program and state guidelines

About the Shoreline Master Program
Find out why the Shoreline Master Program was created and what it is designed to accomplish. Look up enabling regulations, existing designations and a regulatory history of King County's current Shoreline Master Program.

Public opinion survey

King County commissioned a phone survey in winter 2007 to help understand public goals and priorities for managing shorelines. Results are available from the Shorelines Public Survey Findings page.

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