The Growth Management Act (GMA), passed by the State Legislature in 1990, requires that counties and cities develop a collaborative set of framework policies to guide development of each jurisdiction's comprehensive plan.
The Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC) is a formal body, currently consisting of elected officials from King County, Seattle, Bellevue, other cities and towns in King County, special purpose districts, and the Port of Seattle.
Realization of a countywide vision involves collaboration, trade-offs and difficult choices about the appropriate level of growth, its location, the type of growth to be encouraged, public spending, governance decisions, environmental protection, and the quality of life in King County. Through the GMPC, jurisdictions within King County are working together to plan for economic and population growth in King County.
The GMPC developed and adopted the Countywide Planning Policies, providing a countywide vision and serving as a framework for each jurisdiction to develop its own comprehensive plan, which must be consistent with the overall vision for the future of King County. The CPPs (PDF*, 213KB) were adopted and ratified by the cities in 1994.
The Countywide Planning Policies are the framework which the Metropolitan King County Council used when adopting the Urban Growth Area (UGA) in the 1994 King County Comprehensive Plan. In an effort to limit urban sprawl, enhance open space, protect rural areas and more efficiently use human services, transportation and utilities, most future growth and development is to occur within the UGA.
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