The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved a group of new interlocal agreements this week that detail management of urban growth areas (UGA) surrounding incorporated cities in Lewis County.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution during its Tuesday business meeting that approved five new interlocal agreements (ILA) — one agreement each with the cities of Centralia, Morton, Toledo, Vader and Pe Ell. According to Lewis County Community Development Director Mindy Brooks, the new interlocal agreements are largely the same and will replace older agreements from the early 2000s and prior to standardize permitting and other UGA management procedures.
“Cooperative relationships between the cities and the county benefit both jurisdictions and the residents and businesses within the unincorporated UGA,” reads the resolution. “And the county recognizes that a standard interlocal agreement with all cities will provide consistency.”
Lewis County already accepted new zoning and code updates for the five cities earlier this year as part of the state-mandated comprehensive update that updates codes with state law. The new agreements will guide the cities and the counties in enforcing those updates.
“The ILAs are to specify how we apply those and coordinate between the two jurisdictions,” Brooks said. “The ILAs are standard across the board. What is different are the attachments which specify each code and the zoning.”
The Centralia City Council approved its end of the ILA with the county during its Tuesday meeting.
The new standard ILA, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle, includes changes to the local property permitting process. Previously, permitting applications were first submitted to the city and were sent back and forth between the city and the county. The new process starts and ends with Lewis County. The change is meant to expedite the permitting process to meet new state requirements that calls on permits to be returned to applicants within 30 days of being submitted.
Emil Pierson, Centralia community development director, gave the city council a rundown of what the changes would look like under the new ILA during a Sept. 23 workshop. The county will take over permitting processing in the UGA, including land use, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) entries and critical areas. Further, the county will review building permits first before the permit is issued by the city, while utilities will remain under the control of the city and code enforcement will still be done jointly. Floodplain permits will also be maintained by the county, and Port of Centralia projects will go through the county.
The approval of the new permitting process also comes as Lewis County and the City of Centralia are poised to begin a mediation process between the two local governments and the Port of Centralia over land use restrictions in the city of Centralia and its UGA. The mediation was prompted by a warehouse moratorium instituted by the City of Centralia earlier this year.
Even so, Brooks says the new standardized ILA is not expected to impact the mediation or the warehouse moratorium that prompted it. While permitting is now done in large part by the county, the process still requires approval by the relevant cities for final permit approval whether that city is Centralia or one of the four other cities entering into the new standardized ILA.
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The Chronicle Assistant Editor Dylan Reubenking contributed to this report.
