By ordinance a board may, as an alternative to and in lieu of the creation of a planning commission as provided in RCW 36.70.030, create a planning department which shall be organized and function as any other department of the county. When such department is created, the board shall also create a planning commission which shall assist the planning department in carrying out its duties, including assistance in the preparation and execution of the comprehensive plan and recommendations to the department for the adoption of official controls and/or amendments thereto. To this end, the planning commission shall conduct such hearings as are required by this chapter and shall make findings and conclusions therefrom which shall be transmitted to the department which shall transmit the same on to the board with such comments and recommendations it deems necessary.
RCW 36.70.040
Department—Creation—Creation of commission to assist department.
Known as the Planning Enabling Act
The act spans §§ 36–36 (115 sections).
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 78 Wash. 2d 858 - Chrobuck v. Snohomish County (1971)
Most recently applied in 3 Wash. 3d 743 - U.S. Sportsmen's All. Found. v. Smith (October 2024)
1963 c 4 s 36.70.040
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.