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<br /> <br />Chapter 8 RURAL AND RESOURCE LANDS <br />KITTITAS COUNTY <br />Page 103 Comprehensive Plan <br />considered a resource to the economy. Commercial Forest lands are those that have been identified as areas <br />where logging has been the main source of activity in the past and where such lands can or will be preserved <br />for that resource and activities associated with forests. Mineral lands that have long-term significance for <br />extraction of minerals allow for the extraction of mineral resources, and occur in various zones. <br />Following are general policies for all Resource lands in Kittitas County. <br />RR-P107: Conserve important natural resource lands with the implementation of a Transfer of Development <br />Rights program, a market-based tool in which land owners volunteer to sell the right to develop their land to <br />areas where greater density is more appropriate, permanently conserving specified natural resource lands. <br />RR-P108: Development standards for lot size and configuration, fire protection, water supply and structure <br />location will be adopted for land use activity within or adjacent to resource lands. <br />RR-P109: Kittitas County will continue to research innovative incentive-based ordinances that encourage <br />and preserve resource land activity. <br />RR-P110: Open ranges are a resource land not subject to nuisance complaints due to residential activity <br />RR-P111: The County should research tax incentives that encourage the establishment and continuance of <br />resource land protection and preservation. <br />RR-P112: Where proposed development is determined incompatible with natural resource activities, all <br />mitigation measures to make the development compatible with the activities shall be completed at expense <br />of the developer. <br />RR-P113: Forest land and agricultural land located within UGAs should not be designated by a county or a <br />city as forest land or agricultural land of long-term commercial significance, unless the city or county has <br />enacted a program authorizing transfer or purchase of development rights. <br />RR-P114: Lands designated commercial agriculture or commercial forest lands should not be used to <br />expand an urban growth area or designated as future urban growth expansion areas. <br />RR-P115: Ongoing agriculture and forestry activities in rural working and resource lands should not be <br />unduly restricted by development regulations. <br /> Commercial Agriculture Land Use <br />The purpose and intent of this designation is to comply with the requirements of the GMA to guide adoption <br />of regulations which assure that use of lands adjacent to agricultural lands of long term significance will not <br />interfere with continued use of that land for agricultural purposes [RCW 36.70A.060]. In classifying and <br />conserving the agriculture resource lands in Kittitas County, it has considered the minimum guidelines found <br />in WAC 365-190 including: <br /> Lands not characterized by urban growth; <br /> Lands capable of being used for agricultural production based primarily on physical and geographic <br />characteristics;