17.10.010 Purpose | Lynnwood Municipal Code

17.10.010 Purpose.

The purpose of this chapter is to identify critical areas and to supplement the development requirements contained in the Lynnwood Municipal Code by providing for additional controls as required by the Washington State Growth Management Act and other laws. Wetlands, streams, fish and wildlife priority habitat areas, geologically hazardous areas, frequently flooded areas, and critical aquifer recharge areas, as defined in LMC 17.10.030, constitute critical areas that are of special concern to the city of Lynnwood. The standards and mechanisms established in this chapter are intended to protect the functions and values of these environmentally critical features for the public benefit, while providing property owners with reasonable use of their property. By regulating development and alterations to critical areas this chapter seeks to:

A. Protect the public health, safety and welfare by preventing adverse impacts of development;

B. Educate the public as to the long-term importance of environmentally critical areas and the responsibilities of the city to protect and preserve the natural environment for future generations;

C. Effectively manage environmentally critical areas by regulating development within and adjacent to them;

D. Mitigate unavoidable impacts to environmentally critical areas by regulating alterations in and adjacent to critical areas;

E. Protect the city’s critical areas using best available science;

F. Prevent, to the extent practicable, adverse cumulative impacts to all critical areas;

G. Encourage improvements to all surface water bodies and watercourses;

H. Protect the public, and public resources and facilities from injury, loss of life, property damage or financial losses due to flooding, erosion, landslides, soil subsidence or steep slope failure;

I. Alert appraisers, assessors, owners and potential buyers or lessees to the potential development limitations of environmentally critical areas;

J. Allow the city of Lynnwood to obtain all information necessary to approve, condition, or deny public or private development proposals;

K. Provide predictability and consistency to the city of Lynnwood’s development review process; and

L. Implement the policies of the State Environmental Policy Act, the Growth Management Act, and all city functional plans and policies. (Ord. 3193 § 2, 2016)