The definitions provided below apply only to this chapter.

"Applicant" includes the owner(s) of parcels that are the subject of a land use application, a person making a request for water budget neutral determination, or a person requesting a permit to appropriate public groundwater.

"Common ownership" means any type or degree of legal or equitable property interest held by an applicant in any proximate parcel. Common ownership also includes a joint development arrangement between an applicant and any owner of a proximate parcel. A joint development arrangement is defined as involving significant voluntary joint activity and cooperation between the applicant and the owner(s) of one or more proximate parcels with respect to the development of parcels in question. Joint activity and cooperation that is customary or required by land use or other legal requirements does not itself constitute a joint development arrangement. A joint development arrangement may be evidenced by, but is not limited to, agreements for coordinated development and shared use of services or materials for permitting, design, engineering, architecture, plat or legal documents, financing, marketing, environmental review, clearing or preparing land, or construction (including road construction); covenants; agreements for common use of building materials, equipment, structures, facilities, lands, water, sewer, or other infrastructure.

"Consumptive use" of a proposed withdrawal is the total depletion that the withdrawal has on any affected surface water bodies.

"Ecology" means the department of ecology.

"Exemption" or "groundwater exemption" means the exemption from the permit requirement for a withdrawal of groundwater provided under RCW 90.44.050.

"Existing use of the groundwater exemption" means a use of groundwater under the authority of the exemption from permitting where water was:

(a) First regularly and beneficially used prior to July 16, 2009; and

(b) The water right is perfected within the five years following the first regular beneficial use for that purpose. Water to serve a parcel that is part of a group use begun within five years of the date water was first regularly and beneficially used on one or more parcels in the group is an existing use if the group use remains within the limit of the permit exemption.

"Group use" means use of the groundwater exemption for two or more parcels. A group use includes use of the exemption for all parcels of a proposed development. It further includes use of the exemption for all parcels that are proximate and held in common ownership with a proposed new development. If a parcel that is part of a group use is later divided into multiple parcels more than five years following the first use, the new uses of the exemption on the resulting multiple parcels will be considered a separate group use distinct from the original group.

"Land use application" means an application to Kittitas County requesting a:

• Subdivision;

• Short subdivision;

• Large lot subdivision;

• Administrative or exempt segregation;

• Binding site plan; or

• Performance based cluster plat.

"New use of the groundwater exemption" means a valid permit-exempt use of groundwater begun on or after July 16, 2009. When an existing group use is expanded to serve a parcel in the future, the expanded use is a new use if it begins more than five years after the date water was first regularly and beneficially used for that purpose on any parcel in the group.

"Parcel" means any parcel, land, lot, tract or other unit of land.

"Proximate" means all parcels that have at least one of the following attributes:

• Share any common boundary; or

• Are separated only by roads, easements, or parcels in common ownership; or

• Are within five hundred feet of each other at the nearest point.

"Proximate shortplat" means a shortplat that would be considered a group use with another subdivision or shortplat.

"Regular beneficial use" means a use of water under the groundwater permit exemption that is recurring or functioning at fixed, uniform, or normal intervals and is done in conformity with established usages, rules, or discipline.

"Total water supply available" means the amount of water available in any year from natural flow of the Yakima River, and its tributaries, from storage in the various government reservoirs on the Yakima watershed and from other sources, to supply the contract obligations of the United States to deliver water and to supply claimed rights to the use of water on the Yakima River, and its tributaries, heretofore recognized by the United States.

"Upper Kittitas County" is the area of Kittitas County delineated in WAC 173-539A-990.

"Water budget neutral project" means an appropriation or project where withdrawals of public groundwater are proposed in exchange for placement of other water rights into the trust water right program that are at least equivalent to the amount of consumptive use.