On October 10, 2023, the Snohomish County Board of Health adopted Ordinance BOH23-01 approving the Snohomish County Board of Health Code (SCBHC). The new Board of Health Code went into effect on November 1, 2023. Due to the time constraints in 2023 related to the dissolution of the former Snohomish Health District, the scope of work for updating the Board of Health Code content was limited.
On March 12, 2024, the Board of Health was briefed on the Environmental Health division’s 2024 Board of Health Code revision workplan. The workplan was broken into three main goals. The first goal is to reorganize the layout of the Board of Health Code to separate content into more clearly defined titles. The first step towards this code reorganization process is to brief the Board of Health on proposed code reorganization concepts and to gather feedback.
The scope of work for the code reorganization includes reorganizing the layout of the Board of Health Code, providing more accurate names for some titles, updating cross references to reflect the new code layout, and fixing punctuation/formatting errors. This code revision will serve to reorganize only and will not include any changes to policy.
The current layout of the Board of Health code contains five titles:
- General Provisions
- Health & Safety
- Public Services
- Water
- Wastewater
The intent for restructuring the layout of the code is to place Environmental Health programs into their own, clearly defined titles. The new layout being proposed is:
- General Provisions
- Solid Waste
- Food Safety
- Water Recreation Facilities
- Wastewater
- Drinking Water
- Illegal Drug Manufacturing or Storage Sites
- School Health and Safety
- Smoking and Vaping
- Camps
- Mobile Home Parks
The objective for renaming some titles of the code is to be vague enough to cover all underlying topics while providing enough specificity to inform the user of the contents held within. The new names being proposed are:
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CURRENT NAME
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NEW NAME
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Schools
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School Health and Safety
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Smoking in Public Places, Places of Employment and Other Related Matters
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Smoking and Vaping
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Group Camp Regulations
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Camps
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Recreation Camping Facilities
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The ordinance strategy for this code reorganization is to repeal the impacted titles (titles 2-5) and reintroduce them all as new titles. Amending ordinances is not a good vehicle for a code reorganization as the scale is too large. Repealing and replacing is a cleaner process and will reduce confusion. It is anticipated the ordinance will be presented in May 2024 with action on the ordinance set for June 2024.