Pierce County Passes New Agricultural Resource Lands Designation Ordinance!

Author: Jenny Axelrod Published: August 28, 2018

In 2016, FLO joined a multidisciplinary team tasked with evaluating Pierce County’s existing land use policy for designating agricultural resource lands (ARL)—lands that “have long-term significance for the commercial production of food or other agricultural products,” according to The Washington State Growth Management Act—and then recommending new ARL designation criteria.

FLO provided GIS expertise throughout the project, using advanced GIS analysis to model the effects of different ARL criteria on agricultural lands and creating data visualizations to help county citizens understand how the recommendations would impact their community.

We are very happy to announce that, just this month, the Pierce County Council adopted a new ordinance that defines ARL in Pierce County based on our recommended criteria! Learn more here about the original ARL update project.