Unlike many parts of the country, the growth in King County outside of the Seattle borders is slowing. Census data show that since the 1990s expansion of the suburbs has ebbed significantly even while the county’s population has grown to become the 13th largest in the nation.
Why might that be? The answer lies within a major piece of legislation from Olympia.
The Growth Management Act was adopted in 1990 by the Legislature to address an uncoordinated and inconsistent set of rules for development that were threatening the environment. The GMA called upon each county to establish its own set of regulations while following newly established state guidelines.
King County Council set up a board to first establish urban-growth boundaries, required by the GMA, that divided the existing urbanized western portion of King from rural eastern portions to limit future development. County Executive Gary Locke – who would later become governor – helped the board recognize 14 urban centers to absorb the bulk of new growth. (That figure has since grown to 35, mostly located near three interstate freeways.)
Within four years of the GMA’s passing, the county council developed its Comprehensive Plan, a set of building-development regulations to help curtail suburban sprawl and protect environmentally sensitive lands (of which there are many in our area). The result of the laws is a greater share of residential growth within cities.
The plan regulates land use in a range of categories. They include economic development, housing, natural resource lands, natural environment, facilities & services, transportation, parks & recreation, cultural resources, energy & telecommunications, and planning & implementation.
When the plan was passed in 1994, county council member Larry Phillips put the new laws into perspective, saying: “We’ve established a blueprint for growth in our community that will last for generations to come.”
Like the land it aims to protect, the plan is organic and nurtured over time. To this day, the laws help to guide decisions on zoning, protections and limitations on county land. The plan forces greater population density in established cities while helping to maintain environmentally critical areas – including governing shorelines.
Excluding Seattle, King County experienced a 60% population explosion in the 1960s. But in our most recently completed decade of the 2010s, population growth for that same portion of the county was only 16%.
(Data released by the Census Bureau in May 2022 showed a population decline of about 1% in the same area outside Seattle for the period of July 2020-June 2021. Bellevue lost 1.6% of its total population, or 2399 people during that pandemic-influenced time, while the exurban area of Redmond gained 2932 residents, or 4%, year-on-year.)
Partial credit (or blame, depending on your point of view) should be directed to the King County Comprehensive Plan. It has kept expansion in check while allowing wildlife – from elk to cougar, eagle to salmon – and tree populations to flourish.
Some three decades after their birth, the GMA and Comprehensive Plan are not perfect but durable. They are a testament to the men and women of King County and state lawmakers who helped chart the course of our region’s growth while seeking a balance between people and nature.
King County is on land that is home to the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie tribes. Along with the Duwamish tribe, Native American history and the love of its sacred lands are critical for all creatures – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Timeline of a Territory
1848 – Oregon Territory established (including what is now Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming)
1850 – Donation Land Claim Act (U.S. citizens offered 320 acres of free land in Oregon Territory, 650 acres to married couples)
1853 – Washington Territory established (First land patents – or deeds – were granted in 1857 in what are now Clark and Thurston counties)
1859 – Oregon statehood
1862 – The Homestead Act (Signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, the act granted land to independent farmers aged 21+ – including women and minorities – in the West).
1889 – Washington statehood
1990 – Growth Management Act