Record Group 162.01
PLANNING COMMISSION

The formation of a twenty-one member advisory Regional Planning Commission by the County Commissioners in 1926 represented the first effort at comprehensive regional planning for King County (Resolution 2204). This Regional Planning Commission was charged with the task of studying and addressing problems relating to the development of rapid transit and the preservation of open spaces for recreation in the region.

Following the lead of a state-level initiative to rationalize regional planning, the Commissioners created a new Planning Commission in 1934 (Resolution 5638) to replace the existing commission. The new commission was composed of experts in selected fields. Members included engineers, university professors, City of Seattle personnel, a judge, and a ferry service manager. In its first year of operation, the Planning Commission studied existing projects and made projections about how the planning function might be carried out in King County. In 1935, an act relating to city, town, county, and regional planning (Chapter 44, Session Laws of 1935) was passed by the state legislature. The Planning Commission was reorganized under this new law and its personnel reappointed by the County Commissioners on June 24, 1935 (Resolution 5638). The Commission now consisted of twelve members; the chairman of the Board of County Commissioners and the County Road Engineer served as ex-officio members. The reorganized Planning Commission operated primarily as a zoning body until 1949. During this period, a zoning code (Resolution 6494, June 2, 1937) and area zoning maps were adopted for King County. The 1937 zoning code, however, did not provide for a formal system for the issuing of building permits. Following an unsuccessful effort in 1941 by the County Commissioners to eliminate the Planning Commission and assign its responsibilities to the Road Engineer, the Commissioners did adopt legislation which provided for the issuance of building permits and promulgation of rules by the Road Engineer (Resolution 7985, April 24, 1941).

The first systematic attempt at developing a comprehensive plan began in 1949. The Planning Commission was divided into two main units: the Administrative Office, which was responsible for handling rezone petitions and plats and the Planning Office, which was responsible for comprehensive planning and research. Between 1951 and 1958, the Planning Commission issued several preliminary studies and recommendations to form the basis for a comprehensive plan for King County. In July 1958, Judge M. Douglas ruled that the Planning Commission had been zoning illegally between June 2, 1937 and July 1958, since it had never filed an adequate comprehensive plan with the County Auditor as required by the State Planning Enabling Act of 1935. Judge Douglas recommended that immediate remedial procedures to correct the situation be initiated by the county. In August 1958, Resolution 188801 was adopted as the official King County zoning code, all previous resolutions having been declared invalid by Judge Douglas. This resolution also comprised the county's first official comprehensive plan. In 1959, the state legislature enacted a new State Planning Enabling Act (SL 1959,Ch. 2, codified as RCW 36.70) that applied exclusively to counties. The new law provided for the establishment of a county Planning Department with an advisory Planning Commission. The County Commissioners chose to come under this new act and created a Planning Department that included a nine-member advisory Planning Commission to take the place of the former Planning Commission (Resolution 19969).

SERIES DESCRIPTION
(Click on series title to see container list)

162.01-430           Administrative reports, 1927-1959
Periodic reports issued by the Planning Commission, in different organizational configurations between 1927 and 1959, describing the mission, activities and objectives of the Commission and its staff. Reports for 1935-1940 include reproductions of some of the zoning maps issued in connection with the county's first zoning code (1937); other maps; and photographs. The 1934-1935 report includes a "Preliminary Report on the Sammamish River Project" (1934) as Appendix B.

Volume: 0.33 cu ft

162.01-431           Comprehensive Plan studies, 1951-1954
In 1949 the Planning Commission began to undertake studies to update the county's first (1939) comprehensive plan. The revisions comprised 14 sections corresponding generally to county school districts: Auburn, Bellevue, Bothell, Enumclaw-Plateau, Federal Way, Highline-South Central, Issaquah, Kent, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Renton, Shoreline, Snoqualmie Valley, and Vashon Island. Each study included sections on physical, human and economic geography; and assessments of schools, traffic, shopping and industrial areas, parks and recreation, and utilities. Between 1955 and 1958 the studies were further revised, and a generalized comprehensive plan based on them was filed in August 1958.

Volume: 0.33 cu ft

Volume: 0.33 cu ft

Updated: November 18, 2003