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"Accessory Dwelling Unit" means a second dwelling unit added to, created within, or detached from a single-family detached dwelling for use as a completely independent or semi-dependent unit with provisions for cooking, eating, sanitation, and sleeping.

"Applicant" means a person, individual, or organization seeking permission to develop land within unincorporated Pierce County by applying for a building permit.

"Building Permit" means a permit issued pursuant to Title 15 PCC for new construction or addition.

"Capital Facilities" means the facilities and improvements found in the most recently approved Pierce County Capital Facilities Plan element of the Comprehensive Plan for Pierce County.

"Capital Facilities Plan" means the plan for financing capital improvements that support the County's current and future population and economy, as found in the Capital Facilities Plan element of the Comprehensive Plan for Pierce County, adopted by Pierce County pursuant to Chapter 36.70A RCW.

"Capital Improvement" means land, improvements to land, structures (including design, permitting and construction), initial furnishings, and selected equipment. Capital improvements have an expected useful life of at least 10 years. Other capital costs, such as motor vehicles and motorized equipment, computers and office equipment, office furnishings, and small tools are considered to be minor capital expenses in the County's annual budget, but such items are not capital improvements for the purposes of the Comprehensive Plan or the issuance of development permits.

"Council" means the Pierce County Council.

"County" means Pierce County.

"County Engineer" means the County Engineer of Pierce County or the County Engineer's designee.

"Development Activity" means any type of construction or placement or conversion or expansion of a building, structure, or use, or the siting of a mobile home, or any change in use of a building or structure, or any changes in the use of land that creates additional demand and need for public facilities. (RCW 82.02.090(1))

"Director of Planning and Public Works" means the Director of the Department of Planning and Public Works or the Director's designee.

"District" means any area located within Pierce County that has special purpose and defined service area boundaries in the unincorporated area of Pierce County, and whose Capital Facilities Plan has been or will be adopted by the Council as a part of the County's Comprehensive Plan.

"Duplex" means two dwelling units which are attached to one another. Duplexes are also known as "two family" housing.

"Dwelling unit" means one or more rooms designed for or occupied by one family for living or sleeping purposes and containing kitchen, sleeping, and sanitary facilities for use solely by one family. All rooms comprising a dwelling unit shall have access through an interior door to other parts of the dwelling unit.

"Encumbered" means to reserve, set aside, or otherwise earmark the impact fees by contract to pay for commitments, contractual obligations, or other liabilities incurred for public facilities as set out in an adopted Capital Facilities Plan.

"Existing Level of Service" (ELOS) means the level of service (LOS) for schools as discussed in the Capital Facilities Plan element of the Comprehensive Plan for Pierce County. For schools, ELOS is the level of service provided by a District within its School District boundaries, as indicated in the Capital Facilities Plan element of the Pierce County Comprehensive Plan.

"Gross Floor Area" means the total square footage of liveable area of any dwelling unit and the gross leasable area square footage of any non-residential building, structure, or use, including accessory uses.

"Hearing Examiner" means the Pierce County Hearing Examiner identified in Chapter 1.22 PCC.

"Impact" means an activity on or an alteration of a land use which changes or alters the demand for public services or facilities.

"Impact Fee" means a payment of money imposed by Pierce County upon development activity pursuant to this Title as a condition of granting development approval and/or a building permit in order to pay for the public facilities needed to serve new growth and development. "Impact fee" does not include a permit fee, an application fee, the administrative fee for collecting and handling impact fees, the cost of reviewing independent fee calculations, or the administrative fee required for an appeal pursuant to Chapter 1.22 PCC and PCC 4A.10.140.

"Impact Fee Account" or "Account" means the Account established for the public facilities for which impact fees are collected, pursuant to PCC 4A.10.060 and in compliance with the requirements of RCW 82.02.060.

"Independent Fee Calculation" means the impact calculation, and/or economic documentation prepared to support the assessment of a school, park, or traffic impact fee other than by the use of the schedule kept on file with the Planning and Public Works Department, or the calculations prepared for a District or the County where none of the fee categories of fee amounts in said schedule accurately describe or capture the impacts of the new development on public facilities.

"Interest" means the interest earned by the account during the period during which the fees were retained.

"Interlocal Agreement" or "Agreement" means the Interlocal agreement by and between the County and a District, city or town as authorized in PCC 4A.10.050 pursuant to Chapter 39.34 RCW.

"ITE Land Use Code" means the classification code number assigned to a type of land use by the Institute of Transportation Engineers in the most current Edition of "Trip Generation."

"Level of Service" (LOS) means an established minimum capacity for public facilities or services that is planned to be provided per unit demand or other appropriate measure of need and is used as a gauge for measuring the quality of service. Levels of service are usually quantifiable measures of the amount of public facilities that are provided to the community and may also measure the quality of some public facilities. Levels of service are set to reflect realistic expectations consistent with the achievement of growth aims. As standards, they are valuable planning and budgetary tools, even if concurrency is not required for specified facilities, given that they are a measure of quality of service. Levels of service for traffic impact fees are the "service thresholds" described in the Rate Study.

"Low-income housing" means:

1. An owner-occupied or renter-occupied housing unit affordable to households whose household income is less than 80 percent of the Pierce County median income, adjusted for household size, as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

2. In the event that HUD no longer publishes median income figures for Pierce County, the County may use or determine such other method as it may choose to determine the Pierce County median income, adjusted for household size. The Director will make a determination of sales prices or rents that meet the affordability requirements of this Section. An applicant for a low-income housing exemption may be a public housing agency, a private non-profit housing developer, or a private developer.

"Mobile Home Park" means a tract of land designed and maintained under a single ownership of unified control where two or more spaces or pads are provided solely for the placement of mobile or manufactured homes for residential purposes with or without charge. A mobile home park shall not include mobile home subdivisions or recreational vehicle parks.

"Multifamily" means a structure containing three or more dwelling units, with the units joined to one another.

"Owner" means the owner of record of real property; provided that, if the real property is being purchased under a recorded real estate contract, the purchaser shall be considered the owner of the real property.

"Park Impact Fee" means an impact fee in unincorporated Pierce County to pay for new park system facilities to serve new growth and development in Pierce County.

"Park System Facilities" means all parks, open space, trails, facilities, and recreation programs owned or controlled by Pierce County through the Parks and Recreation Department. Park System Facilities do not include the lands or structures owned by others such as schools, private recreation providers, and nonprofit organizations, even though the County may have an agreement to manage recreation programs at such a site. Pierce County Park and Recreation Facilities are discussed in the Capital Facilities Plan element of the Comprehensive Plan for Pierce County.

"Person" means an individual, a corporate entity, a partnership, an incorporated association, or any other similar entity.

"Planned Unit Development" or "PUD" shall have the same meaning as set forth in PCC 18A.75.080.

"PPW" means the Pierce County Planning and Public Works Department.

"Project Improvements" means site improvements and facilities that are planned and designed to provide service for a particular development project and that are necessary for the use and convenience of the occupants or users of the project, and are not system improvements. No improvement or facility included in the Capital Facilities Plan shall be considered a project improvement (RCW 82.02.090(6)).

"Proportionate Share" means that portion of the cost of public facility improvements that are reasonably related to the service demands and needs of new development (RCW 82.02.090(5)).

"Public Facilities" means the following capital facilities owned or operated by government entities: (a) public streets and roads; (b) publicly owned parks, open space, and recreation facilities; (c) school facilities; and (d) fire protection facilities in jurisdictions that are not part of a fire district.

"Rate Study" means the "2018 Pierce County Traffic Impact Fee Rate Study."

"Residential" or "Residential Development" means all types of construction intended for human habitation. This shall include, but is not limited to, single-family, duplex, triplex, other multifamily development, mobile homes and manufactured homes.

"Road" means a public street or road, or similar right-of-way including avenue, place, way, drive, lane, boulevard, highway, bridge, ferry and other thoroughfare, and intersections thereof, except an alley, shared access facility or driveway, which enables motor vehicles, transit vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians to travel between destinations, and affords the principal means of access to abutting property. A road includes the right-of-way, road base, paved surface, and associated appurtenances such as traffic signals, street and road lights, curb, gutter and sidewalk, and storm drains.

"School Impact Fee" means an impact fee in unincorporated Pierce County to pay for new school capital facilities to serve new growth and development within a School District.

"Senior/Assisted Living Facility" means a residential facility licensed under Chapter 18.20 RCW that provides personal care services, intermittent nursing services and/or medical care services to residents, often in a private, apartment-like unit.

"Service Area" means a geographic area described in the County's Capital Facilities Plan or Pierce County Traffic Impact Fee Rate Study in which a defined set of public facilities provides service to development within the area; provided, that the service area for schools shall be the applicable School District. Service areas may be separately described for each type of public facility.

"State" means the State of Washington.

"System Improvements" mean public facilities that are included in the Capital Facilities Plan and are designed to provide service to service areas within the community at large, in contrast to project improvements (RCW 82.02.090(9)).

"Traffic Impact Fee" means an impact fee in unincorporated Pierce County to pay for new road capital facilities to serve new growth and development within unincorporated Pierce County.

"Two-family" means two dwelling units which are attached to one another. "Two family" housing types are also known as "duplexes."

"Voluntary Agreement" means an agreement between an applicant and the County or District as authorized by RCW 82.02.020.

"Zero-lot-line" means design that allows for the placement of a structure on the side yard property line.

(Ord. 2022-33s § 2, 2022; Ord. 2018-71s § 2 (part), 2018; Ord. 2017-12s § 2 (part), 2017; Ord. 2016-51s § 1 (part), 2016; Ord. 2015-25s § 2 (part), 2015; Ord. 2012-63 § 1 (part), 2013; Ord. 2006-60s § 1 (part), 2006; Ord. 96-122S § 1 (part), 1996; Ord. 96-105S2 § 1 (part), 1996)