The Lewis County Board of Commissioners heard the first of three presentations on proposed changes to Lewis County code as part of the comprehensive plan periodic update process on Wednesday.
Lewis County Community Development Director Mindy Brooks led a roughly 30-minute presentation during an Aug. 20 county directors’ update meeting to brief Lewis County Commissioners Scott Brummer and Lindsey Pollock on proposed zoning changes. Commissioner Sean Swope was absent from the meeting.
The session also featured a short overview of the proposed changes from Kimley-Horn Consulting, a group hired by Lewis County to aid in the comprehensive plan periodic update. Kimley-Horn long range planner Erin O’Kelley was present on behalf of the consulting group.
During the summary, O’Kelley broke down the goals and policy changes relevant to the periodic update.
The periodic update is mandated to occur every 10 years to put county codes in line with changes to state and regional law. Unsurprisingly, most of the proposed changes outlined by O’Kelley were those required by the state, especially with respect to changes to Washington's Growth Management Act and inclusion of climate resilience rules. However, she noted the update also considered recommendations from residents and county officials and made changes to streamline and organize the document where possible.
“It is supposed to be setting a future forecast of the next 20 years of the direction the county is intended to be going, and so during the periodic update, we are looking at all of the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan,” O’Kelley said.
According to O’Kelley, the climate and resilience rules are relatively new to the comprehensive plan periodic update process. They require counties to “identify, protect and enhance community resiliency to climate impacts” based on the hazards relevant to the region. According to Brooks, in Lewis County that means preparing for flood, wildfire and landslides.
O’Kelley also added that the county incorporated two major optional elements into proposals, such as the local subarea plans for Packwood and Onalaska and changes to local recreation policies.
Brooks presented the proposed zoning changes in the new comprehensive plan. She started by pointing out that zoning changes affect a relatively small portion of the county, but make significant changes in those spots. Virtually no change was made to zoning in the county’s urban centers of Centralia and Chehalis, with the exception of a small reduction in Centralia’s urban growth area.
More significant zoning changes occurred in rural areas with Packwood and Onalaska seeing major zoning changes driven by community input and Toledo laying the groundwork for a potential expansion toward Interstate 5.
Packwood earned a new urban growth area and its zoning was updated along with Onalaska’s. Zoning in both urban areas were altered dramatically with large chunks of the center of the unincorporated communities moving away from small town mixed used zoning. According to Brooks, that designation allows virtually any kind of development except for industrial.
Both are set to adopt more prescripted zoning designations creating dedicated economic centers. The proposed zoning for Packwood proposes more high-density housing at the center of the unincorporated community along with space for mixed use and a designated airport district. The Onalaska plan dedicates most of the space within the UGA to low-density single-family homes and also creates a dedicated industrial zone and areas reserved for open space
The zoning changes also include the creation of a master planned resort north of Packwood along the Cowlitz river and a change to industrial zoning around the TransAlta power plant near Centralia developed in cooperation with TransAlta and the Economic Alliance of Lewis County.
The comprehensive plan briefing Tuesday comes after more than two years of work from the Lewis County Community Development Department, beginning with public outreach and open houses in 2023 and 2024 that allowed the county and its consultant to develop the updates.
The Lewis County Planning Commission then reviewed the proposed changes and accepted further public comment before recommending the updated comprehensive plan to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners for approval. Brooks will now brief the county commissioners on the proposed changes over the next few weeks.
Tuesday's workshop was the first of three where Brooks and others brief the county commissioners on the changes and present them with the documents describing the proposed changes. The next two workshop briefings are planned for Aug. 27 and Sept. 8 and are open to the public, but will not have time for public comment.
According to Brooks, a final public hearing is scheduled on Tuesday, Sept. 23, and will give residents a final opportunity to address the updates.
Information important to the comprehensive plan update process is available on the Lewis County Community Development website under the Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulation Amendments tab.
For all of the materials and documents relevant to the comprehensive plan periodic update, visit https://tinyurl.com/yrkmr652.
