Washington State Regulatory Reform: Jekyll and Hyde '95

Abstract

In 1995, in response to popular sentiment demanding regulatory reform, the U.S. Congress has undertaken fundamental reassessment and reinvention of natural resource and environmental regulation at the national level. Simultaneously, Washington State has become a national model for regulatory reform at the state level, by integrating recent growth management legislation with traditional local land-use processes and preexisting environmental statutes such as the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and the Shoreline Management Act. See WASH. REV. CODE. Ch. 90.58. Honoring the recommendations of the Governor's Task Force on Regulatory Reform, the 1995 Washington legislature enacted legislation of landmark importance. In doing so, the legislature has attempted comprehensive substantive and procedural integration of local regulation under the recent Growth Management Act, WASH. REV. CODE. Ch. 36.70A. See also, Settle, supra note 1.