Chapter 18.120
PLAN AMENDMENTS AND ZONE CHANGES
Sections:
18.120.040 Application contents.
18.120.060 Siting of essential public facilities.
18.120.070 Concomitant rezone.
Prior legislation: Ordinance 2006-17.
18.120.010 Purpose.
The city recognizes the occasional necessity to amend the comprehensive plan, capital facilities plan, and municipal code in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare. The comprehensive plan and its various components shall be subject to continuing evaluation and review by the city. Any amendment to the comprehensive plan or its components shall be consistent with the Growth Management Act, Chapter 36.70A RCW et seq., and any change to the capital facilities plan, municipal code or city engineering standards shall be consistent with the comprehensive plan.
This chapter provides the method and criteria by which the comprehensive plan, capital facilities plan, zoning map, and development regulations may be amended. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.020 Applicability.
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all private or city-initiated requests to amend the text, policies or maps that comprise the comprehensive plan, capital facilities plan, zoning map, and development regulations. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.030 Procedures.
(1) The city shall consider amendments to the comprehensive plan and capital facilities plan no more frequently than once every year. All proposals shall be considered by the city council concurrently so the cumulative effect of various proposals can be ascertained.
(2) Development code text, plan text, policy or map changes shall be considered as Type IV actions, subject to the following:
(a) Proposed comprehensive plan and map amendments shall be considered collectively, once annually, consistent with the following schedule:
(i) In September of each year, the city planner shall publish notice that applications for plan amendments will be accepted.
(ii) In October of each year, the city planner shall accept applications for preapplication conferences on plan amendments.
(iii) In November of each year, the city planner shall conduct preapplication conferences.
(iv) In December of each year, the city planner shall accept formal applications.
(v) Between January and March, the amendment requests shall be heard by the planning commission as provided for in LCMC 18.30.110.
(vi) Between March and April, the planning commission decision on plan amendments shall be forwarded to city council for final consideration.
(3) The above time line is advisory only and does not bind the city. However, the city planner shall make every effort to adhere to these time lines.
(4) Site-specific rezone requests shall be processed as Type IV land use actions, subject to the application requirements of LCMC 18.120.040 and the approval criteria of LCMC 18.120.050.
(5) Out-of-Cycle Amendments. Revisions to the comprehensive plan may be considered more frequently than once per year under the following circumstances:
(a) An emergency exists by which a delay in action would result in a significant public harm;
(b) The initial adoption of a subarea plan that does not modify the comprehensive plan policies and designations applicable to the subarea;
(c) The adoption or amendment of a shoreline master program;
(d) To resolve an appeal of a comprehensive plan filed with a Growth Management Hearings Board or from a court of competent jurisdiction; and
(e) Plan amendments reviewed under these conditions shall be considered legislative actions, subject to Type IV procedures of LCMC 18.30.110.
(f) All amendments shall be considered subject to the review criteria established in this chapter. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.040 Application contents.
(1) An applicant for a Type IV amendment shall submit 10 copies of the applicable information required by LCMC 18.30.050(2) except as otherwise provided therein.
(2) A technically complete application under this chapter shall contain:
(a) A map of the proposed amendment, if applicable;
(b) The complete proposed text amendment, if applicable;
(c) A narrative describing the potential effects the proposal will have on public services, including streets, schools, parks and utilities, to the extent applicable;
(d) An analysis of the potential cumulative effects of the proposal;
(e) Materials required under LCMC 18.30.050; and
(f) Other materials the city planner deems necessary. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.050 Approval criteria.
The burden of proving consistency with the approval criteria herein shall be upon the proponent. All proposed amendments:
(1) Shall be consistent with all relevant statutory requirements under federal and state law;
(2) Shall be consistent with all applicable goals and policies of the comprehensive plan or that a significant change in circumstances requires an amendment to the plan, text or map;
(3) Shall not result in a decrease in the level-of-service for capital facilities and services identified in the La Center Urban Area Capital Facilities Plan;
(4) Shall be consistent with the population projections provided by the Washington State Office of Financial Management as allocated by Clark County;
(5) Shall be in the public interest;
(6) Shall meet any locational criteria for the proposed district as set forth in the comprehensive plan and municipal code;
(7) Shall demonstrate that conditions have substantially changed since the current zoning was applied to the property, if appropriate; and
(8) The proposed zoning district is allowed by the plan to zone matrix adopted by the city council. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.060 Siting of essential public facilities.
Plan amendments to implement the policies of the comprehensive plan regarding proposals for siting essential public facilities such as airports, state educational facilities and other institutions necessary to support community development may be considered as follows:
(1) Government facilities may be established as provided in other land use districts through the procedures specified in the applicable district without plan amendment.
(2) Application for siting of public facilities may be approved if criteria as noted herein are met:
(a) The city shall in cooperation with other jurisdictions ensure that siting of regional facilities is consistent with all elements of the adopted comprehensive plans and other supporting documents;
(b) The proposal for siting of a public facility contains appropriate interjurisdictional analysis and financial analysis to determine financial impact and applicable intergovernmental agreement;
(c) Needed infrastructure is provided for;
(d) Provision is made to mitigate adverse impacts on adjacent land uses;
(e) The plan for the public facilities development is consistent with the city’s development regulations established for protection of critical areas; and
(f) Development agreements or regulations are established to ensure that urban growth will not occur if located adjacent to non-urban areas. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]
18.120.070 Concomitant rezone.
(1) Rezone Agreements.
(a) The purpose of this subsection is to allow for the implementation of the comprehensive plan policies relating to future commercial centers and industrial developments, as appropriate and consistent with the La Center comprehensive plan and La Center capital facilities plan. If, from the facts presented, and the findings, report and recommendations of the planning commission as required by this section thereof, the city council determines that the public health, safety and general welfare will be best served by a proposed change of zone, the city council may indicate its general approval, in principle, of the proposed rezoning by the adoption of a “resolution of intent to rezone” the area involved. This resolution shall include any conditions, stipulations or limitations which the city council may feel necessary to require in the public interest as a prerequisite to final action. The fulfillment of all conditions, stipulations and limitations contained in said resolution, on the part of the applicant, shall make such a resolution a binding commitment on the city council. Such a resolution shall not be used to justify spot zoning, to create unauthorized zoning categories by excluding uses otherwise permitted in the proposed zoning, or by imposing setback, area or lot coverage restrictions not specified in the code for the zoning classification, or as a substitute for a variance. Upon completion of compliance action by the applicant, the city council shall, by ordinance, effect such rezoning. The failure of the applicant to meet any or all conditions, stipulations or limitations contained in the resolution, including the time limit placed in the resolution, shall render the resolution of intent to rezone null and void, unless an extension is granted by the city council upon recommendation of the planning commission. Generally, the time limitation shall be one year. The city council may grant one one-year extension, after which the resolution shall be null and void if all conditions, stipulations and limitations have not been met by the applicant.
(b) Concomitant Rezone Agreements.
(i) Purpose. The purpose of this subsection is to explicitly provide for the use of agreements concomitant to rezone approvals. The agreement may call for performance by the applicant which is directly related to public needs which may be expected to result from the proposed usage of the property. The performance called for will mitigate the public burden in meeting those resulting needs by placing it more directly on the party whose property use will give rise to such needs. The agreement shall generally be in the form of a covenant running with the land. The provisions of the agreement shall be in addition to all other pertinent LCMC requirements.
(ii) Applicability. This agreement process will not generally be used for rezones to urban residential zoning districts such as LDR-7.5. It may, however, be used in any situation where extraordinary potential adverse impacts from a proposed rezone may be neutralized by the agreement. The agreement process may be employed for rezones in sensitive geographic areas or areas such as critical transportation corridors. The agreement process will generally be used for rezones to commercial, industrial, and non-single-family residential not specifically identified by the comprehensive plan map. The intent is that concomitant rezone agreements shall only be used when normal review and approval procedures are not adequate to resolve the specific issues involved in the rezone proposal.
(iii) Mitigating Measures. The agreement may include mitigating measures such as:
(A) Access control;
(B) Landscaping, screening, buffering;
(C) Improvements to public services including drainage, sewer, water and roads;
(D) Lot coverage, dimension;
(E) Phasing of development.
(iv) Concept Plan. A concept plan may be required. When required, the concept plan shall be drawn to a one-inch to 100-foot scale and include:
(A) General location of structures;
(B) Location and number of access points;
(C) Approximate gross floor area of structures;
(D) Name of the proposal;
(E) Identification of areas requiring special treatment due to their sensitive nature;
(F) North directional arrow; and
(G) Names and locations of all public streets or roads bordering the site.
(v) Application Procedure. The applicant may propose an agreement concomitant to rezone approval at the time of, or after, a pre-application conference with the responsible official. The proposed agreement shall include any proposed mitigating measures and a concept plan as provided for by this chapter. In cases where a specific project is to be considered in conjunction with a rezone request, the responsible official shall review the site plan.
(vi) Modifications. Modifications which are minor and without major impact may be approved by the city council or its duly authorized representative, administratively and without public hearing. Any other modifications shall only be approved after the same procedure applicable to all rezones has been followed, including a public hearing.
(vii) Enforcement. The agreement shall provide for appropriate enforcement mechanisms and performance guarantees.
(2) Release of Concomitant Rezone Agreements.
(a) Upon petition by the property owner, a concomitant rezone covenant may be fully or partially released, or modified, by the hearing examiner following a public hearing with notice as prescribed by LCMC 18.30.120 and in accordance with the criteria set forth in this section; provided, that if no development has occurred pursuant to a covenant entered into prior to July 1, 1980, such covenant may be fully released and the property subjected to all applicable standards and provisions of the current zoning ordinance by the city council at a public meeting if it appears that no substantive issues are raised under the criteria of subsection (2)(a) of this section.
(b) In considering requests for release or modification of concomitant rezone covenants, the review authority shall consider the following:
(i) In the case of full covenant release, whether development of the site would be consistent with current zoning regulations and comprehensive plan recommendations; and
(ii) In the case of either full or partial covenant release or covenant modification, whether adequate public/private services are available to support development of the site; and
(iii) In the case of either full or partial covenant release or covenant modification, whether the requested action would unreasonably impact development undertaken on nearby properties in reliance upon the covenant commitments; and
(iv) In the case of partial covenant release or covenant modifications, whether future development under current zoning will be consistent with existing and planned development. [Ord. 2007-09 § 3, 2007.]