Why doesn Westmark have to follow current Sensitive/Critical Area regulations?
Because of the way that the laws in Washington State are written, when someone files the original application to develop property, they are vested under many of the current building regulations in place at that time. Hazards that pose a threat to public safety and welfare are generally considered to not be vested, and there may be other exceptions. Washington’s current vesting law was written in the 1950’s and is badly out of date. 46 other States have stricter regulations, basically requiring that some sort of actual work be done in order to obtain and retain vested rights. The amount of work required varies from State to State, but Washington’s regulations are among the very loosest. A discussion of the status and effect of the current Washington laws is available in this 1998 report from the Land Use Study Commission.
