Supreme Court Issues Decision in Goldstar v. Futurewise

Yesterday, the Washington State Supreme Court issued its decision in the Goldstar Resorts v.  Futurewise matter.    This case involves challenges to Whatcom County’s rural zoning designations.    Central to this case is whether the County appropriately designated Limited Areas of More Intensive Development (“LAMIRDs”).  See my earlier blog posts for more information on LAMIRDs.

On this issue, the Supreme Court ruled  held that the County did not properly designate LAMIRDs when the County revised its comprehensive plan in 2005.  Essentially, the Supreme Court affirmed the original ruling by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board (“Hearings Board”)  with regard to this issue.  Consequently, the County has been charged with creating logical boundaries around rural areas containing preexisting development.

Importantly, however, the Supreme Court has remanded this case to the Hearings Board to reconsider its ruling on the validity of  some of the County’s rural zoning designations.  The Hearings Board had originally held that, outside of LAMIRDs,  areas zoned for densities at greater than 5 units per acre (i.e. R1A, R2A, RR2, RR1, etc.) were not rural in nature and thus not compliant with the State’s Growth Management Act (“GMA”).

In remanding this issue to the  Board, the Supreme Court held that there is no “bright line” rule as to what densities are appropriate in rural areas.  The Hearings Board will thus be required to consider the overall character of an area rather than using a strict density rule to determine what is rural under the GMA.

As further discussed in my prior postings on this issue, the County has been working on designating LAMIRDs in compliance with statutory requirements; and work on the County’s rural element will continue into next year.  The Supreme Court’s ruling should not necessarily cause the County to change course on this work except to the extent that the County need not be bound by any “bright line” rule as to what amount of density per acre should be allowed in the rural areas.

For more information on the County’s LAMIRD designation process, see the County’s Rural Element website.