2025 Critical Areas Update

About
The City's critical areas ordinance (CAO) is being updated to reflect the most recent guidance for environmentally critical areas, such as wetlands, streams, steep slopes and coal mine hazard areas. Below you can find resources, a schedule, FAQs and contact information.

Did You Receive an Outreach Letter from the City?
Staff sent out approximately 500 letters, and we realize the letter did not provide a lot of details for individual parcels.

You received a letter because some of the land on or near your property was included in the City’s database of environmentally sensitive/critical areas. Our data on these areas is imperfect, and the actual borders can differ, especially for smaller or ephemeral streams and wetlands. We generally use our critical areas database as a starting point for determining where critical areas might be, but the real legally binding determinations of critical area boundaries are made by delineations performed by biologists on a case-by-case basis as needed. Your subdivision plat map may also have information located on it (see Resources section, below).

Receiving an outreach letter from the City is not a guarantee that this legislation will (or won't) affect your property, but it is meant to let you know there is a chance it could. We’re looking to get as much input from residents as possible while we’re still early in the process of updating the ordinance so we have time to consider all the feedback.

Schedule
The following is the anticipated timeline for updating the critical areas ordinance. The schedule is subject to change.

June 26, 2025: Planning Commission | meeting materials
July 22, 2025: Planning Commission | meeting materials | YouTube video
August 27, 2025: Planning Commission
September 24, 2025: Public Hearing at Planning Commission
October 2025, Adoption at City Council

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I stay informed?
Please email [email protected] and request to be put on our email list.

Who do I contact to make a comment about the proposed ordinance?
Please email [email protected] with your comment. You can also come to a Planning Commission meeting (held the 4th Wednesday of every month at 6pm in City Hall) and make a public comment.

How do I know if a critical area is near my property and what the rating is?
The only "official" way to find out is to have a wetland scientist survey your property. However, critical areas, formerly known as "environmentally sensitive areas," or "sensitive area tracts" can be found on your subdivision plat map (see Resources section, below). Sometimes lots have easements called "Native Growth Protection Easements (NGPEs)," which can also mean a critical area is nearby.

Will the changes affect my existing residence and/or other buildings?
If you retain your existing buildings, they will not be affected. (This is called "grandfathering" or more technically a "legal non-conformity.") If you remove a building, there is a chance you will have to bring your lot or the building up to code to rebuild it, which could require moving the building. We recommend you take a look at the draft "redlined" text located in the most recent Planning Commission meeting materials (link in the schedule, above).

Will the changes affect future development on my lot?
Staff are reviewing the codes of other cities which have exempted lots which meet certain criteria (such as lot size, age of lot, etc.) Staff will need to review with state agencies as well before being able to have a final answer on the ability to exempt existing lots.

Is there anything I can do about property taxes?
Please contact the King County Assessor's Office

Resources
Best Available Science
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: All Resources
Washington Department of Ecology: Buffer Widths

Property Information
Here are the resources staff regularly use to determine information about parcels in Newcastle.

Newcastle Wetland and Stream Inventories: Although these are about 25 years old, they can provide some information about streams and wetlands in Newcastle. Please note these reports cannot replace requirements for critical areas reviews on individual lots and the stream types have changed.

King County iMap has some critical areas information. Users need to turn on (by clicking the box in the layer list) the "environmentally sensitive areas" layer. The legend will show the symbols for the various types of critical areas and stream types King County has on file, although these are not always correct.

Recorded plan (subdivision and site plan) maps that the city has electronically on file are available in our Document Center. They may help you identify where critical areas have been identified on or near your lot.

If you don't know what the name of your subdivision is (sometimes they change!) you can look up your parcel on King County Parcel Viewer or iMap to find out the subdivision name and what your lot number was (that's the identifier your property had before it was assigned an address and assessor's parcel number).

If you do not find your plat map, you can try using King County Records Search. You can search by address or parcel number. Pro Tip! When you run your search query, use "contains" rather than exact search. Oftentimes this will provide better results!

Additional information on Stream Types: You can look up a stream type on this DNR Forestry Practices map. Note: not all stream types or actual stream locations are accurate.

City of NewcastleWashington

City of Newcastle