Developing a community in Washington is a lot like building a city with Legos — and not just because they’re both expensive and arduous.
In both, a thoughtful planner will have a balance between fields, forests and neighborhoods; adequate housing; roads to connect features; and a plan for new arrivals.
They don’t arrive every Christmas morning with detailed set-up instructions, but Washington has plenty of new arrivals. When the Growth Management Act, which outlines the rules for planning new development, was first adopted in Washington, Lewis County had just over 59,000 people.
Today, the county’s population is estimated to be more than 84,000.
The act requires quickly growing cities and counties to plan for 20-year population projections, with periodic updates to those plans.
With Lewis County’s next update due in 2025, the county commissioners, community development staff and volunteers on the planning commission met last week to discuss their priorities. Comprehensive plans for other jurisdictions inside the county, such as Centralia and Chehalis, will need updates, too. Residents will have the first of many opportunities to provide input on the comprehensive plan at an Oct. 23 meeting at the Adna Grange, 123 Dieckman Road, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The Growth Management Act requires the county to address economic development, land use, housing, transportation, utilities and capital facilities, critical areas and any new regulations passed by the state since the last update. Key legal changes this time around include planning for climate change and resiliency, coordinating with local tribes, planning for affordable housing and more.
It’s also an opportunity for adoption of the Packwood and Onalaska subarea plans, community-led 20-year plans for two quickly growing unincorporated parts of Lewis County.
“We won’t be able to get to everything that we want to,” said Mindy Brooks, senior long-range planner for the county, in a Sept. 26 meeting. “We want to try to figure out what’s the highest of the high priorities, outside of the mandatory, that we need to do.”
Lewis County commissioners, planning commissioners and staff were given a 10-minute, two-person workshop time to list their priorities and report back to Brooks.
Beyond the goals that aligned with the mandatory changes, the groups mentioned a desire to streamline development across jurisdictional lines, decreasing unincorporated residents’ access to cities’ infrastructure, promoting energy resource development and increasing agricultural tourism.
Now, input on the plan will head to the public. The county will start collecting public input during the Oct. 23 meeting, and surveys will be conducted over the following months.
Learn more about the comprehensive plan update and how to provide input at https://lewiscountywa.gov/departments/community-development under the “Comp Plan & Development Regulation Amendments” tab. For more information, contact Mindy Brooks at mindy.brooks@lewiscountywa.gov or 360-740-2610.
Planned Growth Committee and Lewis County Planning Commission meetings are both open to the public. The former meets on the third Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m. in the Lewis County Courthouse and includes representatives from all Lewis County’s cities.
The planning commission meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. on the third floor of the Lewis County Courthouse, 351 NW North St., Chehalis, or on Zoom.
