2019_KittitasCountyHMP_Volume 1_For Adoption

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CHAPTER 5. CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT 5-4 5.1.2 State Growth Management Act The 1990 Washington State Growth Management Act (Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Chapter 36.70A) mandates that local jurisdictions adopt land use ordinances protect the following critical areas: • Wetlands • Critical aquifer recharge areas • Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas • Frequently flooded areas • Geologically hazardous areas. The Growth Management Act (GMA) regulates development in these areas, and therefore has the potential to affect hazard vulnerability and exposure at the local level. Shoreline Management Act The 1971 Shoreline Management Act (RCW 90.58) was enacted to manage and protect the shorelines of the state by regulating development in the shoreline area. A major goal of the act is to prevent the “inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the state’s shorelines.” Its jurisdiction includes the Pacific Ocean shoreline and the shorelines of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and rivers, streams and lakes above a certain size. It also regulates wetlands associated with these shorelines. Washington State Building Code Kittitas County adopts the following codes, as amended by the Washington State Building Code Council pursuant to RCW 19.27 for the purpose of establishing rules and regulations for the construction, alteration, removal, demolition, equipment, use and occupancy, location and maintenance of buildings and structures. International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code), International Fire Code (IFC), Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC), Washington State Energy Code, International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) and International Wildland Urban Interface Code, all either 2015 edition or most current published code. The Washington State Building Code is comprised of national model codes adopted by reference and amended at the state level and others, such as the Washington State Energy Code, are state-written state-specific code. Comprehensive Emergency Management Planning Washington’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Planning law (RCW 38.52) establishes parameters to ensure that preparations of the state will be adequate to deal with disasters, to ensure the administration of state and federal programs providing disaster relief to individuals, to ensure adequate support for search and rescue operations, to protect the public peace, health and safety, and to preserve the lives and property of the people of the state. It achieves the following: • Provides for emergency management by the state, and authorizes the creation of local organizations for emergency management in political subdivisions of the state. • Confers emergency powers upon the governor and upon the executive heads of political subdivisions of the state. • Provides for the rendering of mutual aid among political subdivisions of the state and with other states and for cooperation with the federal government with respect to the carrying out of emergency management functions.