King County Buildable Lands Evaluation Report

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2007 King County Buildable Lands Report
Recent Growth & Land Capacity in King County & its Cities

September 2007

Note: The King County Buildable Lands Report is available for viewing in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. You will need to have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader v. 5.0 installed on your computer to view the Plan files. You can download a free copy of the Acrobat Reader here or visit Adobe's site to get more information.

In 1997, the Washington State legislature adopted the Buildable Lands amendment to the Growth Management Act, (RCW 36.70A.215). The amendment requires six Washington counties and their cities to determine the amount of land suitable for urban development, and evaluate its capacity for growth, based upon measurement of five years of actual development activity. King County and the other five counties must report to the State by September 1, 2002 and every five years thereafter.

Major elements of the Buildable Lands program include:

annual data collection to determine the amount and density of new development;
updated inventories of the supply of land suitable for development;
assessment of the capacity of each jurisdiction and the entire Urban Growth Area to accommodate expected growth;
preparation of a Five-Year Evaluation Report; and (later)
adoption of remedial measures where necessary to address density and capacity shortfalls.

The data gathering and analysis to prepare this Evaluation Report was performed by all 40 jurisdictions in King County, under the auspices of the Countywide Planning Policies (CPPs) adopted and amended in 1994. This Report is our combined response to both the Buildable Lands amendment and the direction provided in the CPPs. Further, each jurisdiction is examining its data in light of its own comprehensive plan.

Credits Acknowledgements (.pdf file 22 KB)

King County Sub Areas Map (.pdf file 1,033 KB)

Chapter I: Executive Summary (.pdf file 29 KB)
Overview of the Buildable Lands Requirements, Countywide Collaboration, Methodology, and Major Findings

Chapter II: Introduction (.pdf file 41 KB)

Chapter III: Technical Framework and Methodology (.pdf file 60 KB)

Chapter IV: Development Activity (.pdf file 97 KB)

Chapter V: Land Supply and Development Capacity (.pdf file 79 KB)

Chapter VI: Rural Areas and Resource Lands (.pdf file 27 KB)

Chapter VII: Profiles of King County Jurisdictions

Divided by sub areas: East Sub Area, SeaShore Sub Area, South Sub Area and Rural Cities Sub Area

View Sub Areas Map (.pdf file 1,033 KB)

SeaShore Sub Area Includes: SeaShore Urban Unincorporated Area, Cities of Lake Forest Park, Seattle and Shoreline

East Sub Includes: Eastside Urban Unincorporated Area, Cities of Bellevue, Bothell, Beaux Arts, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Issaquah, Kenmore, Kirkland, Medina, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Redmond, Sammamish, Woodinville, and Yarrow Point

South Sub Area Includes: South County Urban Unincorporated Area, Cities of Algona, Auburn, Black Diamond, Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, Milton, Normandy Park, Pacific, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila.

Rural Cities Sub Area Includes: Cities of Carnation, Duvall, Enumclaw, North Bend, and Skykomish .

Technical Appendices
     View >> Appendix A
                  (.pdf file 25 KB)
     View >> Appendix B
                  (.pdf file 32 KB)
     View >> Appendix C
                  (.pdf file 16 KB)

For More Information
If you have questions or comments about this web site, please e-mail Chandler Felt at chandler.felt@kingcounty.gov or write the Office of Management and Budget at the address below.

King County Office of Management and Budget
Bank of America Tower
701 5th Avenue, Suite 3200
Seattle, WA 98104

206-205-0712
TTY: 800-325-6165

Updated: Sept. 20, 2007

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