Bill > HB1504

This bill amends the Growth Management Act to allow for the development of freight rail dependent uses on land adjacent to short line railroads in certain counties. The key provisions include: 1. Defining "freight rail dependent uses" as buildings and infrastructure used for the fabrication, processing, storage, and transport of goods that are dependent on and make use of an adjacent short line railroad. 2. Allowing counties located east of the Cascade mountains, and certain counties west of the Cascade mountains, to adopt development regulations to permit freight rail dependent uses on agricultural, forest, and mineral resource lands adjacent to short line railroads. Any such regulations must require buffers to prevent impacts to the adjacent resource lands. 3. Authorizing the development of freight rail dependent uses that do not require urban governmental services in rural lands, as part of the transportation element of local comprehensive plans. 4. Requiring the Department of Commerce to report on any job gains, tax impacts, and impacts to resource lands resulting from freight rail dependent uses sited under this legislation. The purpose of these changes is to support economic development and freight mobility by allowing more flexibility for the siting of rail-dependent industrial and commercial uses, while still protecting agricultural, forest, and mineral resource lands.