Senate OKs bill tackling growth, climate change

OLYMPIA — A bill that would nudge cities and counties toward addressing climate change in their comprehensive land-use plans passed the state Senate on Tuesday on a 31-18 partisan vote.

A key element of Senate Bill 6580 — amending the Growth Management Act to require local governments to address climate change — was removed after the state’s cities and counties protested that the requirement would be cumbersome.

Instead, the state would play a helping role, providing technical assistance including computer software and modeling to help local governments measure greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development would distribute grants to three counties and six cities that are ready to evaluate the impacts of their transportation and development decisions. Those grants would come as officials revise their comprehensive plans beginning in 2011.

That concession wasn’t enough to placate Republican leaders, who declared at a news conference after the vote that the bill’s sponsors want to deny people the right to live where they choose.

“This is taking freedom of choice away from individuals,” said Sen. Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla, the Senate Republican leader. Taking part in the pilot projects might be voluntary, he said, but “seat belts were voluntary too,” until they became mandatory.

He said local governments should have the right to decide what they want their communities to look like.

Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, predicted that the bill’s supporters would make the climate-change language mandatory after this fall’s elections.

Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, said he was surprised by the response. “This bill was a significant compromise,” he said.

Marr said he would have preferred to incorporate a climate-change goal in the 1990 Growth Management Act but was pleased to get Senate support for a bill that ultimately won the support of the associations representing the state’s cities and counties. The city of Vancouver ended up supporting the bill, he said. Clark County remained neutral.

The bill seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle use by encouraging communities to plan for greater density, mixed-use development and access to mass transit.

“When you create sprawl, you are institutionalizing inefficiency and waste,” Marr said.

He said his bill “asks each county and local jurisdiction to tell us what type of approach will promote lower greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a bottom-up, not a top-down bill.”

Under the bill, a broad-based advisory group would study what cities and counties are doing already to reduce driving, identify obstacles to progress, and report back to the governor’s climate advisory team.

The bill carries a $500,000 price tag. It moves next to the House and will take effect only if the money for it is included in the Legislature’s 2008-09 adopted budget.