The following words or terms as
used in this chapter shall have the following meaning unless a
different meaning is clearly indicated by the context:
(1) "Approval by motion" is a means by which a board,
through other than by ordinance, approves and records recognition
of a comprehensive plan or amendments thereto.
(2) "Board" means the board of county commissioners.
(3) "Certification" means the affixing on any map or by
adding to any document comprising all or any portion of a
comprehensive plan a record of the dates of action thereon by the
commission and by the board, together with the signatures of the
officer or officers authorized by ordinance to so sign.
(4) "Commission" means a county or regional planning
commission.
(5) "Commissioners" means members of a county or regional
planning commission.
(6) "Comprehensive plan" means the policies and proposals
approved and recommended by the planning agency or initiated by
the board and approved by motion by the board (a) as a beginning
step in planning for the physical development of the county; (b)
as the means for coordinating county programs and services; (c)
as a source of reference to aid in developing, correlating, and
coordinating official regulations and controls; and (d) as a
means for promoting the general welfare. Such plan shall consist
of the required elements set forth in RCW 36.70.330 and may also
include the optional elements set forth in RCW 36.70.350 which
shall serve as a policy guide for the subsequent public and
private development and official controls so as to present all
proposed developments in a balanced and orderly relationship to
existing physical features and governmental functions.
(7) "Conditional use" means a use listed among those
classified in any given zone but permitted to locate only after
review by the board of adjustment, or zoning adjustor if there be
such, and the granting of a conditional use permit imposing such
performance standards as will make the use compatible with other
permitted uses in the same vicinity and zone and assure against
imposing excessive demands upon public utilities, provided the
county ordinances specify the standards and criteria that shall
be applied.
(8) "Department" means a planning department organized and
functioning as any other department in any county.
(9) "Element" means one of the various categories of
subjects, each of which constitutes a component part of the
comprehensive plan.
(10) "Ex officio member" means a member of the commission
who serves by virtue of his or her official position as head of a
department specified in the ordinance creating the commission.
(11) "Official controls" means legislatively defined and
enacted policies, standards, precise detailed maps and other
criteria, all of which control the physical development of a
county or any part thereof or any detail thereof, and are the
means of translating into regulations and ordinances all or any
part of the general objectives of the comprehensive plan. Such
official controls may include, but are not limited to, ordinances
establishing zoning, subdivision control, platting, and adoption
of detailed maps.
(12) "Ordinance" means a legislative enactment by a board;
in this chapter the word, "ordinance", is synonymous with the
term "resolution", as representing a legislative enactment by a
board of county commissioners.
(13) "Planning agency" means (a) a planning commission,
together with its staff members, employees and consultants, or
(b) a department organized and functioning as any other
department in any county government together with its planning
commission.
(14) "Variance." A variance is the means by which an
adjustment is made in the application of the specific regulations
of a zoning ordinance to a particular piece of property, which
property, because of special circumstances applicable to it, is
deprived of privileges commonly enjoyed by other properties in
the same vicinity and zone and which adjustment remedies
disparity in privileges.
[2009 c 549 § 4106; 1963 c 4 §36.70.020 . Prior: 1959 c 201 § 2.]