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<br /> <br />Kittitas County Shoreline Master Program <br />Chapter 1 9 <br />March 7, 2016 <br />1. Framework, purpose, principles and applicability <br />Sections <br />1.1 The Shoreline Management Act <br />1.2 Scope and jurisdiction of the Shoreline Master Program <br />1.3 Purpose and intent of the Shoreline Master Program <br />1.4 Title and reference <br />1.5 Public involvement process, advisory committee and agency coordination <br />1.6 Relationship to other plans <br />1.7 Applicability <br />1.8 Governing principles <br />1.9 Severability <br />1.10 Effective date <br /> <br />1.1 The Shoreline Management Act <br />The Washington State Shoreline Management Act (also referred to in this document as <br />SMA or the Act) was passed by the legislature in 1971 and adopted by a vote of <br />Washington’s citizens in a 1972 referendum (RCW 90.58). The goal of the Shoreline <br />Management Act is “to prevent the inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal <br />development of the state’s shorelines.” The Act also recognizes that “shorelines are <br />among the most valuable and fragile” of the state’s resources. <br />The Act provides for the management and protection of the state’s shoreline resources <br />by requiring planning for their reasonable and appropriate use. The area regulated <br />under the Act includes lands within two hundred (200) feet of designated shorelines as <br />well as certain wetlands, river deltas, floodways and floodplains associated with such <br />shorelines. <br />The SMA establishes a balance of authority between local and state government s. <br />Cities and counties have the primary review responsibility for development along their <br />shorelines, and the state (through the Washington State Department of Ecology) has <br />authority to review local master programs and local shoreline development permit <br />decisions. <br />1.2 Scope and jurisdiction of the Shoreline Master Program <br />The Shoreline Management Act (SMA) applies to all 39 counties and more than 200 cities <br />in Washington State that have "shorelines of the state" (RCW 90.58.030(2)) within their <br />jurisdictional boundaries. Shorelines of the state include: <br />• All marine waters; <br />• Streams with greater than twenty cubic feet per second (20 cfs) mean annual <br />flow; <br />• Lakes twenty (20) acres or larger; <br />• Upland areas called shorelands that extend two hundred (200) feet landward, in <br />all directions on a horizontal plane, from the edge of the ordinary high water mark