Title
Consideration of Draft Olympia Comprehensive Plan
Recommended Action
City Manager Recommendation:
Review public comments and provide direction to staff on next steps for City Council deliberation.
Report
Issue:
Councilmembers have received public comments on their Public Hearing Draft of the Olympia Comprehensive Plan, including at their July 22, 2014, public hearing. How does the City Council wish to proceed in considering these comments?
Staff Contact:
Leonard Bauer, Deputy Director, Community Planning and Development, 360.753.8206
Presenter(s):
Leonard Bauer, Deputy Director, Community Planning and Development
Background and Analysis:
The Imagine Olympia website contains the Council public hearing draft of the Olympia Comprehensive Plan. It also contains numerous other documents and videos summarizing the draft Comprehensive Plan and describing the public process through which it was created.
Background on the Comprehensive Plan
In 2009, the City initiated a major update to its Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan describes the City's vision for the next twenty years, and provides the policy direction for the City to achieve that vision. The state Growth Management Act (GMA) requires that the Comprehensive Plan accommodate the growth that is projected to occur over the next twenty years. Plan elements include land use, housing, capital facilities, utilities, natural resources, transportation, economic development, cultural resources, and other topics.
The Comprehensive Plan may be amended annually and a major review, and update if needed, is required every eight years by the GMA. This is the City of Olympia's major comprehensive plan update. Each major update must also address development regulations, and coordination with Thurston County to update urban growth areas. These remaining portions of the City's required GMA update will be completed by the deadline in June 2016.
Consideration of Public Comments
As the City Council considers public comment, it may wish to choose which topics to have further discussion at a work session or to make referrals to the Land Use and Environment Committee or other Council committees. To assist in this process, staff has addressed all substantive public comments by topic (Attachment 1). This document provides initial options the Council may want to consider, if it chooses to have further discussion on that topic. Staff will review Attachment 1 at Tuesday's meeting.
Attachments:
· Attachment 1 - Public Comments by Topic, with staff options
· Attachment 2 - Matrix of Public Comments by Topic
· Attachment 3 - Compilation of written public comment, June 25-August 5
· Attachment 4 - Staff Memo about Buildable Lands Report
· Attachment 5 - Hyperlink to Imagine Olympia web page and the Draft Plan
· Attachment 6 - Video recording of the July 22, 2014, public hearing.
Recommended Edits - Thurston County Buildable Lands Report (Attachment 4)
The Growth Management Act requires that six counties, including Thurston County in cooperation with its cities, periodically prepare a "Buildable Lands Report" that examines whether those counties have sufficient lands available for anticipated growth and development. The counties and their cities are to review the most recent Buildable Lands Report to ensure their comprehensive plan remains consistent with the Growth Management Act.
Thurston County recently adopted an update to its Buildable Lands Report. Based on analysis of that updated Report, staff provided a memo at the July 22, 2014, public hearing recommending edits to the discussion of the Report in the Draft Comprehensive Plan. Note that these changes only update background information; they do not change the substance or policies of the Plan.
No public comments were received on the proposed edits related to the Buildable Lands Report. Staff recommends the City Council include these edits in the Olympia Comprehensive Plan.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
The Comprehensive Plan is of community-wide interest. Public input collected during the Comprehensive Plan Update Imagine Olympia process is documented on the Imagine Olympia website (Attachment 5). Over 1,000 pages of public comment were received by the Olympia Planning Commission during its consideration of the Plan. Additional public comment was accepted during consideration of issues referred to the Land Use and Environment Committee, as well as during the recent public comment period on the Council Public Hearing Draft Comprehensive Plan.
Options:
1. Review public comments and identify topics that need further in-depth discussion at a Council work session or identify topics that need further clarification or refinement. Items not so identified will be included in the final draft of the Comp Plan as they were presented in the July 22, 2014 public hearing draft. Provide direction to staff on options to prepare for consideration, and/or additional information desired, for each topic.
2. Review public comments and select topics for referral to the Land Use and Environment Committee or other Council committees. Provide direction to the Committee on options to consider, and/or additional information desired, for each topic.
3. Direct staff to schedule a second public hearing on the Public Hearing Draft Olympia Comprehensive Plan.
4. Direct staff to prepare an ordinance to adopt the Draft Olympia Comprehensive Plan as written.
Financial Impact:
None; this work item is part of the Comprehensive Plan Update. Individual policies may have financial implications in the future as they are implemented.