1992 Growth Management Policies

Local Growth Management Strategies to Protect and Enhance Regional Air Quality — A Summary of 1992 Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Growth Management Policies

Clean Air Quality

Promotion and Enhancement Policies

1. All jurisdictions engaged in growth management policy, plan, and program development activities within the central Puget Sound region should make explicit their commitment to a "clean air future" by supporting Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's air pollution abatement and prevention activities, including the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and state Clean Air Washington Act (CAWA).

2. All local jurisdictions that fall within the federal air quality "nonattainment" areas for carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and particulate matter (PM10), and therefore are subject to State Implementation Plan (SIP) emissions reduction attainment targets and timetables, should identify in advance, a range of supporting land use and transportation development guidelines and alternatives that foster region-wide air quality standards compliance and long-term maintenance.

3. Local jurisdictions should, in collaboration with Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, use consistent and comparable environmental assessment methodologies when calculating pollution emissions and modeling air quality impacts associated with land use and transportation development plans, programs, and projects.

4. Local jurisdictions should work together with regional bodies such as the Puget Sound Regional Council to leverage federal and state programs and funding that promote clean air protection and enhancement.  Cooperative effort, for example, should be employed in the implementation of the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) air quality/congestion management program, and the state transportation demand management program.

5. Local jurisdictions, acting in concert as one air quality management region, should acknowledge their responsibility to eliminate emissions of harmful pollutants, especially toxics and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, in the interest of national and "global" environmental protection.

Land Use Planning and Development Control Policies

1. Jurisdictions located within designed growth management areas should adopt local land use planning and development control procedures designed to avoid and mitigate adverse cumulative air quality impacts prior to project approval and construction.

2. Higher development densities should be supported by jurisdictions within designated urban growth areas and centers, provided that land use incompatibilities are avoided to ensure that pollution emissions and concentrations associated with more intense "mixed" and "infill" developments do not threaten the public health.

3. Land use planning decisions by jurisdictions within local growth management areas should support the attainment of regional emission targets and air quality standards called for by SIP implementation timetables for CO, O3, and PM10.

4. Local zoning and building code requirements should be designed (and refined) to minimize stationary (point) pollution emissions from commercial and industrial sites as well as area-wide emissions associated with new residential development activities.
   

Transportation Systems

Development and Management Policies

1. Local jurisdictions should identify, promote, and implement transportation demand and systems management actions designed to reduce vehicle emissions by lowering the number of miles traveled by single occupancy vehicles (SOV), reducing traffic congestion, improving the existing roadway capacity's people-moving efficiencies (e.g., HOV lanes, enhanced signalization), and increasing public transportation levels of service.

2. Local jurisdictions should pursue more aggressive integration of land use and transportation planning per the requirements of the Growth Management Act in both urban and suburban areas within the designated urban growth area in an effort to achieve emission reductions from higher residential densities closer to employment sites, to reduce SOV trips, and to foster traffic congestion relief.

3. Local jurisdictions should collaborate within the Puget Sound Regional Council's policy forum in evaluating the most appropriate and effective regional "transportation control measures" (TCMs) for incorporation into the CO SIP.

4. Local policies and plans should acknowledge the importance of new air quality "conformity" determinations required for proposed transportation plans, programs, and projects within federally-designated nonattainment areas.

5. Local jurisdictions should support alternative fuels demonstration projects and programs designed in part to complement Growth Management Act planning goals by reducing vehicle fleet emissions and promoting energy conservation.