For More Information:
Please contact Stephanie Warden (206) 296-4187 or Lori Grant, (206) 296-3458.

Protecting and Promoting Agriculture
Agriculture has always been an important part of King County's economy and way of life. Maintaining strong agriculture throughout King County is a major priority for the Executive, particularly as our agricultural lands are threatened by sprawl and development pressures.

What We've Done:

• Lower Green Agricultural Production District: In the 1999 Executive Recommendations to the Comprehensive Plan, transmitted to the Council in March, the Executive proposed maintaining the Lower Green Agricultural Production District as an unincorporated urban area. The goal is to permanently protect these agricultural lands from development pressures.

• Puget Sound Fresh: An aggressive marketing and promotional program to better identify and access locally grown and produced farm products. Last year, the Puget Sound Fresh program produced logos, signage, and a variety of other materials for use by farmers, retailers, and restaurants in an effort to promote locally grown products to consumers. Farm tours and the PSF Web site (http://www.metrokc.gov/farms) were developed to enhance the buying preferences of restaurateurs, food retailers and wholesalers.

• 2000 Comprehensive Plan Update: There is demand to use land within the Agricultural Production Districts for many uses other than agriculture such as wetland mitigation, habitat for endangered and threatened species, and active recreation including soccer fields. The 2000 Comprehensive Plan Update explored alternatives to allow some necessary uses other than traditional farming in a way that will not harm the integrity of agriculture in King County. These options included allowing specific uses but limiting them to a small percentage of the overall property.

What We're Doing:

• FarmLink: Establishing a Farm Link program to connect farmers with land to sell or lease with those wishing to farm as well as establishing mentor/mentee relationships.

• Puget Sound Fresh: In its second year, Puget Sound Fresh has been a resounding success. Additional Puget Sound counties are participating this year as are a number of large retailers and producers. In addition to producing two short promotional videos about PSF for retailers to use in their produce departments, we plan to enhance the Web Site to be more interactive and expand relationships with intermediary customers to include packers and food processors.

For More Information:
Please contact Eric Nelson, (206) 296-1469.

Rural Resources Agenda
The County continues to undertake several important initiatives to respond to the needs of rural citizens and improve service delivery in the rural portion of King County and to help maintain the rural legacy and resource based industries of the County.

What We've Done:

• Rural Forest Commission: Established a Rural Forest Commission and charged it with providing recommendations to encourage forestry and maintain the forest land base in rural King County. The Commission will assist the County in developing programs and policies which address the needs of rural forest landowners and the challenges faced in maintaining this forest land base.

• Current Use Taxation Programs: The County, through marketing and assistance, continues to preserve hundreds of additional acreage each year through voluntary incentive based current use taxation programs such as the Public Benefit Rating System, the Forestland and Timberlands tax programs and the Agricultural lands taxation programs.

• Farmlands Preservation Program: Through this program, the County has preserved 12,793 acres through purchase or donation of development rights on agricultural lands.

What We're Doing:

• The County continues to provide technical assistance to landowners on agricultural, livestock and forestry issues, current use taxation issues, wildlife and wetlands issues and other resource lands issues.

• Continue developing the Fish and Ditch Program for agricultural ditch maintenance to reduce flood hazards and improve salmonid habitat.

• Reducing flood hazards through agricultural ditch maintenance, home elevations, hybrid poplar plantations, beaver management, septic systems maintenance, and culvert placement/maintenance.

• Moving services into rural community centers, providing community grants, educational/training, building and septic permitting services.

• Increasing existing horse trails, and exploring the viability of trails on open space lands.

• Encouraging quality rural development to address temporary farm housing, rural road standards, and community septic systems and modifying regulations that inhibit quality rural development.

For More Information:
Please contact Richard Tucker, (206) 296-7800 or Steve Boyce (206) 296-7800.

Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)
King County's Transfer of Development Rights Program was adopted as a pilot program under Executive recommendation in 1998 and converted to permanent status in September 2001. The TDR Program is voluntary and allows residential densities to be transferred from rural areas to urban areas well suited to absorb additional density.

What We've Done:

• The TDR Bank was established in 1999 with the appropriation of $1.5 million by the Metropolitan King County Council. At the same time the Council set aside $500,000 for urban amenity improvements for neighborhoods which accept additional density through the TDR Program.

• An extensive outreach effort has been launched to inform stakeholders about the program and identify potential receiving sites.

• The Rural Forest Commission reviewed and approved sending site criteria to be used by the TDR Bank.

• Celebrated the first successful transfer of development rights in the Northwest to preserve rural areas, prevent sprawl and increase densities in cities. The public private partnership involved sales of 62 “development rights” from the 313-acres McCormick Forest to Port Blakely, the developer of the Issaquah Highlands inside the city of Issaquah.

• Interlocal agreement with Seattle established the Denny Triangle as the first incorporated receiving site for the King County TDR Program.

For More Information:
Please contact Mark Sollitto, (206) 205-0705.