RCW 47.80 establishes PRTPO’s authorities and responsibilities as an RTPO. The law often stipulates rules pertaining to certain geographies or minimum population sizes. PRTPO is a rural RTPO and so many of these rules do not apply to the Peninsula Region.
The Washington Administrative Code, or WAC, provides detail on how RTPOs are to carry out their responsibilities in RCW 47.80.
RTPOs were authorized by the Legislature as a part of the landmark Growth Management Act passed in 1990. The concepts of integrated transportation and land use planning and coordination between agencies at a regional level are commonplace today, but this was a radical departure in 1990 from previous practices at the local and state levels. RTPOs provided a forum for coordination between local agencies and between local and state agencies that did not previously exist except in large urban places. Note that GMA was sweeping legislation with a broad mandate well beyond the role of RTPOs.