Washington's Way: Dispersed Enforcement of Growth Management Controls and the Crucial Role of NGOs

Though there is a valuable and extensive collection of literature on prawl efforts in both states, this Article examines Washington's Growth Management Act and the critical role that NGOs play in supporting the GMA. Specifically, this Article looks at Washington's GMA from three perspectives-legal, historical, and empirical and proposes that NGOs are vital to the GMA's enforcement. Because NGOs are so critical to the enforcement of the GMA, the question of how the courts interpret the scope of authority of growth management hearing boards when deciding growth management cases becomes very important. A decrease in the authority of the hearing boards would restrict the NGO's ability to act as the trustees of the GMA and enforce the GMA's goals and requirements.

Legal, historical, and empirical analyses are also central to an understanding of dispersed versus centralized growth management laws and the different enforcement powers given to GMA organizations.