Wash. Admin. Code § 365-196-440 - Parks and recreation element
(1) Requirements.
(a) The park and recreation element of the
comprehensive plan must contain at least the following features:
(i) Consistency with the capital facilities
element as it relates to park and recreation facilities;
(ii) Estimates of park and recreation demand
for at least a ten-year period;
(iii) An evaluation of facilities and service
needs; and
(iv) An evaluation of
intergovernmental coordination opportunities to provide regional approaches for
meeting park and recreational demand.
(b) The requirement to include a parks and
recreation element is null and void until sufficient funds to cover applicable
local governments costs are appropriated and distributed at least two years
before the due date for the periodic review and update required in
RCW
36.70A.130(1).
(2) Recommendations for meeting
requirements.
(a) Consistency and integration
with other plan elements. Counties and cities should pay particular attention
to consistency with the land use element, approaches to protecting critical
areas and conserving natural resource lands, and identification of open space
corridors and lands useful for public purposes. Planning policies and
implementing regulations in each of these elements should complement each other
to achieve adopted community goals.
(b) Visioning process. Counties and cities
should start with a visioning process. This process should engage the public in
the process of identifying needs, evaluating their satisfaction with existing
recreational opportunities, and developing goals to guide the development of
the parks and recreation element.
(c) Establishing level of service standards.
(i) The visioning process should be used when
establishing levels of service for the parks and recreation element. Select
levels of service or planning assumptions that reflect local
priorities.
(ii) Methods used to
establish levels of service should reflect community goals, and may be adapted
from approaches recommended by the Washington state recreation and conservation
office or the National Recreation and Parks Association; facilities and
services. Level of service standards should reflect local priorities.
(iii) Level of service standards should focus
on those aspects that relate most directly to factors influenced by growth and
development, to allow for counties and cities to more clearly identify the
impact on the demand for park facilities resulting from new
development.
(d)
Evaluation of facilities and service needs.
(i) Counties and cities should ensure
consistency with the land use element when identifying existing and future
public facilities and services.
(ii) Counties and cities should prepare an
inventory of all existing park, recreation and open space lands, and related
services. The inventory should describe the location, size and type of each
facility or service, its current condition and capacity, and its intended
service area. It should include a description of the park and recreation
facilities and services of other private and public entities, including state
park and recreation services.
(iii)
Counties and cities should estimate demand for parks, open space and
recreational services. Estimates must be for at least a planning period of ten
years, and jurisdictions should consider a planning period that matches that
used for other comprehensive plan elements (e.g., twenty years). In preparing
estimates, factors that should be considered include, but are not limited to:
(A) Population forecasts and other
demographic projections;
(B) Levels
of service selected for each type of facility or service to be
provided;
(C) User information and
participation rates from current facilities and programs;
(D) Surveys or other means of assessing
community priorities for park and recreational services;
(E) National and local trends in recreational
demands and services;
(F)
Facilities and services provided by other private or public entities;
and
(G) Review of statewide
recreation plans, assessments and recreation trends made available through the
department, the Washington state department of fish and wildlife, the
Washington state department of natural resources, the recreation and
conservation office, and the state parks and recreation commission.
(e) The parks and
recreation element should identify future facilities and services needed to
meet the estimated demand for parks, open space and recreational programs,
consistent with levels of service or planning assumptions and the projections
for distribution of growth in the land use element. Consistency with the
capital facilities and land use elements should be ensured when identifying
existing and future public facilities and services to meet the estimated
demand. The parks and recreation element should provide for an integrated
parks, recreation and open space system. The system should consist of a
complementary set of parks and open spaces that, considered together, meet the
needs of a full range of community interests.
(f) Opportunities for intergovernmental
coordination .
(i) When preparing the parks and
recreation element, counties and cities should review other local, statewide,
and regional recreation and land use plans to identify any future facilities
that may help in meeting the future demand for parks and recreation
facilities.
(ii) Counties and
cities should evaluate opportunities for intergovernmental or public/private
partnership approaches to meeting regional demand for park and recreation
services including, but not limited to:
(A)
Joint facility use agreements or contracts;
(B) Interlocal agreements for land
acquisition or facility construction to serve region-wide needs;
(C) Contracts with private service
providers;
(D) Formation of a
single, large regional service provider such as a park and recreation district
(chapter
36.69 RCW), park and
recreation service area (RCW
36.68.400 through
36.68.620 ), or metropolitan park
district (chapter 35.61
RCW); and
(E) Partnerships with
nearby state parks and recreation facilities and services.
(g) Strategies for achieving
adopted goals.
(i) Counties and cities should
prepare strategies for achieving the adopted goals, policies and objectives,
and for meeting the future facilities and service needs. Strategies may
include:
(A) Developing needed facilities and
programs;
(B) Coordinating
intergovernmental efforts to provide needed facilities and programs;
or
(C) Adopting development
regulations that require provision of needed facilities as a condition of
development.
(ii) When
creating plans for new park facilities, counties and cities should develop site
selection criteria to enable strategic prioritization of acquisition and
development opportunities.
(iii)
Strategies for financing must be consistent with the financing plan in the
capital facilities element. If a local government intends to adopt impact fees
as a strategy, it must identify those facilities as necessary for development
and should identify them in:
(A) The parks and
recreation element;
(B) A separate
parks plan; or
(C) In the capital
facilities element.
(iv)
Counties and cities should evaluate if the identified strategies are sufficient
to meet the adopted levels of service. If not, counties and cities should use
the priorities set in the visioning process to realign the level of service
standards with available resources.
(v) A county or city should also develop
protocols to monitor and evaluate the parks and recreation element. These
protocols should be consistent with the policies adopted in the capital
facilities element regarding reassessment. See WAC
365-196-415. The protocol should
include plans to monitor the community's changing recreation needs, evaluate
progress toward implementation, and adapt to new information, such as changes
to plans of other public or private park and recreation service
providers.
Notes
Statutory Authority: RCW 36.70A.050 and 36.70A.190. 10-03-085, § 365-196-440, filed 1/19/10, effective 2/19/10.
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