"Compensation Planning Framework" means the approach to mitigation receiving site selection, site protection, and implementation in a watershed context. This framework is essentially a watershed plan designed to support resource restoration and must include an analysis of historic freshwater wetland losses and current conditions, a description of the general amounts, types, and locations of freshwater wetland resources the program will seek to provide, and a prioritization strategy for selecting and implementing compensatory mitigation activities. The Compensation Planning Framework sets ILF programs apart from mitigation banking and permittee-responsible mitigation. It is necessary since ILF programs can be approved without the identification of any site.

"Credit" means a unit of measure (e.g., a functional or areal measure or other suitable metric) representing the accrual or attainment of ecological functions at a compensatory mitigation site, including wetland mitigation banks and in-lieu fee sites. The measure of ecological functions is based on the resources restored, established, enhanced, or preserved.

"Credit fees" are fees paid by an Applicant to purchase ILF program credits. Credit fees are used to pay for all aspects of implementing and managing ILF programs and ILF receiving sites, including property or property rights acquisition and long-term management. These costs are determined from full cost accounting of the costs to implement mitigation receiving sites within each service area. The credit fee is determined by dividing all known and expected costs necessary to implement and manage one or more ILF receiving sites within a service area by the number of credits expected to be earned from those ILF receiving sites. Credit fees are unique to each service area. Credit fees will be reviewed and adjusted annually in order to reflect the true cost of implementing ILF receiving sites.

"Credit Purchase Request Form" means a form the Applicant must complete and submit to PPW to initiate credit purchases. The Applicant will be provided this blank form when the wetland approval is issued.

"Credit Purchase Response Form" takes the place of an invoice. This is a form that will be prepared by the PCILF Program Manager after the PPW reviewing biologist approves the Credit Purchase Request Form. This form is used to document that all necessary aquatic resource permits have been received by the Applicant prior to authorizing the sale of PCILF credits. The Applicant will bring this form, along with payment for credits, to the PPW counter in order to purchase credits.

"Debit" means a unit of measure (e.g., a functional or areal measure or other suitable metric) representing the loss of ecological functions at an impact or project site. The measure of ecological functions is based on the resources impacted by the authorized activity.

"Full Cost Accounting" means a method of accounting for all monetary costs of resources used or committed for programs or services. Full cost accounting considers direct and indirect (overhead) operating costs as well as past and future expenses. It recognizes costs over the life of a program or service. For ILF programs, full cost accounting means that the cost per unit of credit must take into account expenses for land acquisition, project planning and design, construction, plant materials, labor, legal fees, monitoring, remediation, adaptive management, contingency costs appropriate to each stage of project planning, long-term management and protection of ILF projects, financial assurances that are necessary to ensure successful completion of ILF projects, and administration of the ILF program.

"In-Lieu Fee Mitigation Program" means a program involving the restoration, establishment, enhancement, and/or preservation of aquatic resources through funds paid to a governmental or non-profit natural resources management entity to satisfy compensatory mitigation requirements for authorized, unavoidable impacts to similar resources off site. Similar to a mitigation bank, an in-lieu fee program sells compensatory mitigation credits to applicants whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is then transferred to the In-Lieu Program Sponsor. However, the rules governing the operation and use of in-lieu fee programs are somewhat different from rules governing operation and use of mitigation banks. The operation and use of an in-lieu fee program are governed by an in-lieu fee program instrument.

"In-Lieu Fee Program Sponsor" or "Sponsor" means any public or nonprofit entity responsible for establishing, and in most circumstances, operating an in-lieu fee program. The Pierce County Department of Planning and Public Works, Division of Surface Water Management, is the Sponsor of the PCILF Program.

"Interagency Review Team" or "IRT" is the interagency group of federal, tribal, State, and/or local regulatory and resource agency representatives that reviews documentation for, and advises the District Engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Department of Ecology (Co-Chairs of the IRT) on, the establishment and management of an in-lieu fee program.

"Land fee" appears in the Statement of Sale (Appendix C). The Statement of Sale document is also a document within the PCILF Instrument and it is, therefore, approved by the PCILF Interagency Review Team, which is chaired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Ecology. Those agencies require a separate credit fee and land fee. The land fee is that portion of the mitigation fee (known as the credit fee in Pierce County Code) that is for use in acquisition of property or property rights for PCILF mitigation receiving sites.

"Mitigation fee" appears in the Statement of Sale (Appendix C). The Statement of Sale document is also a document within the PCILF Instrument and it is, therefore, approved by the PCILF Interagency Review Team, which is chaired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Ecology. Those agencies require a separate credit fee and land fee, which together comprise the mitigation fee. The "mitigation fee" as that term is used in the Statement of Sale has the same meaning as the "credit fee" as that term is used elsewhere in this Code. The mitigation fee is the total of all fees the Applicant must pay for credits and it includes the portion of fees paid for property rights acquisitions for PCILF receiving sites (aka "land fees") and all other fees necessary to implement PCILF receiving sites.

"PCILF Program Instrument" or "the Instrument" means the legal document for the establishment, operation, and use of the Pierce County In-Lieu Fee Program. The latest version of this Instrument may be found on the public website for Pierce County Planning and Public Works, under In-Lieu Fee Program, In-Lieu Fee Program Document Library.

"PCILF Program Manager" or "Program Manager" is the staff person within the Pierce County Division of Surface Water Management with the responsibility of administering the PCILF Program.

"Permittee-responsible mitigation" means compensatory mitigation provided by a developer or project proponent, usually within the same construction season as the impacts, and preferably on the same site as the permitting impacts.

"Pierce County In-Lieu Fee Program" or "PCILF Program" is the ILF program developed by Pierce County for use by public and private developers within Pierce County.

"Statement of Sale" is a form submitted to PPW and other regulatory agencies upon payment of credit fees to the ILF program sponsor. The Applicant is responsible for forwarding copies of the Statement of Sale to applicable permitting agencies; it is their means of demonstrating that they have met compensatory mitigation obligations. A copy of the Statement of Sale Template for the PCILF Program is provided in PCC 18G.20.060 – Appendix C.

"Sub-Drainage Basin" or "Basin" means major subdivision of the primary watersheds, or WRIAs. Sub-basins are defined by a dominant creek or river drainage system, sometimes further broken into reaches. For instance, the Chambers-Clover Creek Watershed (WRIA 12) is broken into four basins: Chambers Bay; Clover Creek/Steilacoom; American Lake (no surface water connection to Chambers or Clover Creek, but all lakes within the watershed have the same subsurface hydrology); and Tacoma West (short watersheds that drain directly to Puget Sound). Basins are roughly five to 25 square miles in area.