Substitute Senate Bill 6242 - An Act Relating to Establishing a Statewide Strategy for Land Acquisitions and Disposal

SSB 6242 Lands Strategy - Final Report

On March 11, 2004, just minutes before midnight, the Washington House of Representatives enacted Substitute Senate Bill 6242 (SSB 6242) - "An Act relating to establishing a statewide strategy for land acquisitions and disposal" - as their last act of the session. Just as it had in the Senate a month earlier, the bill passed unanimously.

While only two pages in length, SSB 6242 contained several directives: 

The Inventory
With the 1999 Public and Tribal Lands Inventory as a starting point, SSB 6242 tasked the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board (RCFB) to prepare a report that includes an inventory of habitat and recreation land acquisitions and disposals (hereafter “transactions”) dating back to 1980. The inventory would be used to assess several trends related to recent habitat and recreation transactions, such as costs, sources of funding, or what process was used to authorize the transaction. Further, the inventory results would provide direction in crafting a statewide strategy for habitat and recreation land transactions.

The specific elements that are required in the inventory are:

Habitat and recreational land acquisitions and disposals since 1980 by state agencies, to include:

• Fee simple
• Less than fee simple if the interest is greater than 50 years
• Acquisitions by local governments that were funded by state agencies
• Trades between public and private entities
• Gifts
• Principle use of acquired parcel
• Funding source
• Form of appropriation
• Information from local governments on land trusts, etc.

Statewide Coordinated Strategy
The statewide strategy has several required elements. Generally, these elements are focused on agency land acquisition processes. The objective is to find ways to increase coordination, transparency, and to provide a statewide planning perspective that incorporates the land holdings of all agencies into a particular agency’s land acquisition decisions.

• Consistency with RCW 79A.15 – the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program Policies
• Acquisitions based on determination of need
• Interagency coordination
• Local government compensation for lost tax revenues
• Consider options for a no net gain policy
• Consider what policies, priorities and goals should apply to strategy

What are some of the key questions or issues that SSB 6242 wants answered or resolved?

• Are state agencies acquiring habitat and recreation lands for a reason, and not just as opportunities arise?
• Can the state develop a plan for habitat and recreation acquisitions and disposals, similar to a local government comprehensive plan?
• Are agencies are talking to each other? Does “one hand know what the other is doing?”
• State land acquisitions are tax exempt, resulting in a loss of property tax revenue to local governments. How can the impacts to local governments be addressed?
• Is there a threshold for determining when there should be “no net gain” in counties that have a large percentage of public land already?
• Agency land transactions sometimes occur without much public awareness. Is there some way to make these transactions more “transparent?”
• When agencies decide they need to acquire or dispose of habitat or recreation land, how do they make this determination? How do we ensure that agencies are using a statewide focus (that spans other agencies’ ownership/management) when they decide they need to complete a transaction?
• Sometimes the legislature’s oversight role is bypassed when an agency is pursuing a transaction.
• Are agencies duplicating one another’s roles, or do the habitat and recreation land programs within the different agencies have distinct purposes that complement one another?
• Why don’t we have just one state agency that is in charge of all the habitat and recreations land transactions in the state?

When will the report be completed?
The report is due to the legislature on June 30, 2005.

How do I get on the 6242 Update List?
Please e-mail RCO , or call (360) 902-3000.