Demographics
The Demographics Team collects and analyzes data related to Long Range Planning Division projects and responds to various information requests from other county departments, public and private agencies and citizens. For example, the Demographics Team produces charts and graphs (pdf) that illustrate the county's total population by the number of males and females within different age groups.
Buildable Lands
Snohomish County completed the 2007 Buildable Lands Report (BLR). Under the state Growth Management Act (GMA), Snohomish County and its cities are required to review and evaluate the adequacy of suitable residential, commercial and industrial lands inside the Urban Growth Area (UGA) for accommodating projected population and employment growth during the remaining portion of the current 20-year planning horizon through the year 2025.
The Buildable Lands program monitors the rate and density of residential, commercial and industrial development that has occurred. It measures the development densities observed since the last BLR. Using this information, the county is able to determine whether there is enough remaining suitable, or buildable, residential, commercial and industrial land supply within the UGAs. This evaluation is required every five years, with the first Buildable Lands Report prepared in 2002.
Growth Monitoring
The Countywide Planning Policies (CPPs) (pdf) for Snohomish County call for a long-term monitoring process to review population and employment growth, annexations and incorporations, land consumption and supply, and housing availability and affordability. The monitoring program was developed jointly by cities and the county. Results of the monitoring process are published annually in the Snohomish County Tomorrow Growth Monitoring Report or GMR. The first GMR came out in 1997 and it is updated annually.
Fair Share Housing Allocation
The Countywide Planning Policies direct the cities and county to work together to develop a Fair Share Housing Allocation to help each of the county's jurisdictions devise their affordable housing objectives for their comprehensive plans. The Fair Share Housing Allocation model forecasts the number of low- and moderate-income households that can be expected to live in Snohomish County and might have difficulty affording housing. That forecast is then allocated to the county's jurisdictions. The goal is to prevent further concentration of low-income households in only a few areas.
In January 2005, the Snohomish County Tomorrow Steering Committee adopted an update to the Fair Share Housing Allocation for the planning period extending to the year 2025.