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Future development will be required to pay its fair share of the capital improvements needed to address the <br />impact of such development and the portion of the cost of the replacement of obsolete or worn out facilities. <br />The different methods of payment allowed for these capital improvements include: <br />• Voluntary contributions for the benefit of any public facility. <br />• SEPA mitigation payments. <br />• Dedications of land. <br />• Provision of public facilities. <br />Future development will not be required to pay fees for needed public facilities to reduce or eliminate <br />existing deficiencies. <br />The growth forecasts, to be used for planning purposes and the specific growth targets for each UGA, are <br />developed using the Kittitas County population projections established by the State of Washington Office of <br />Financial Management (OFM). The OFM prepares high, medium and low forecasts for each county, with the <br />middle range representing the most likely scenario. Kittitas County jurisdictions determined that the high <br />forecast best represents growth trends in this area. <br />This 2% growth rate was selected as a slight refinement to OFM's projections, based on a review completed <br />by Berk & Associates in July 2016. The OFM projections are provided as a range of low, medium or high. For <br />Kittitas County, the OFM projections range from 0% growth for the low projections, 1.08 percent growth for <br />the medium projection, and 2.13% for the high projection. <br />Typically, Counties and Cities will simply adopt the medium projection to for their planning purposes. <br />Because the medium projection is OFM's actual estimate, and the high and low projections are to provide for <br />a margin of safety, it is assumed that the medium projection will be the most accurate in most cases. <br />Occasionally, however, a local government will have reason to believe that OF M's projections are not <br />reflective of local conditions. In such cases the burden is on the local government to refine or overturn the <br />OFM projections before using different projections for comprehensive planning. While Kittitas County is not <br />using the middle projection for this Comprehensive Plan, the projection of 2% as the growth rate, which falls <br />between the high and medium OFM projections, is well within the range for acceptable planning practices <br />under GMA, because it does still fall within the overall range of OFM projections. <br />The County's decision to deviate from the OFM medium growth projection is based on careful analysis and <br />local knowledge of the growth patterns and trends in recent years, as well as well-founded projections of <br />what to expect in the future. In 2015 Kittitas County and the Cities/Town within the County entered into <br />inter-local agreements to study the 2012 OFM projections. This resulted in the Berk & Associates report, <br />which lists several factors that argue in favor of a higher than medium projection growth rate, including the <br />emergence of Kittitas County as a retirement destination. Also, as housing prices and cost of living have <br />increased in King and Snohomish Counties, the desirability of Kittitas County as a location for long distance <br />commuters has increased substantially. This trend is not expected to change over the next 20-year planning <br />timeline. <br />In addition to the Berk analysis of OF M's 2012 projections, data released by OFM in September 2017 support <br />the County's decision to use a higher than medium projection growth rate. The OFM publication "Growth <br />Page 58