Title
Public Hearing on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a Committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Hold a public hearing for the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan.
Report
Issue:
Whether to hold a public hearing for the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan.
Staff Contact:
Susan McLaughlin, Director, Community Planning & Economic Development, 360.753.8206
Presenter(s):
Casey Schaufler, Associate Planner
Background and Analysis:
The Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) is a Chapter in the City's 20-year Comprehensive Plan adopted by Council in 2014. The CFP portion of the Plan is updated annually.
The CFP identifies which capital facilities are necessary to support development and/or growth, as well as infrastructure improvements needed in our community. Most projects listed are directly related to the applicable master plan, such as the Parks, Arts and Recreation Plan, the Storm and Surface Water Plan, the Transportation Master Plan, and other similar plans. The Comprehensive Plan covers a 20-year time horizon; however, the Preliminary CFP, 2026-2031 Financial Plan is a 6-year financial plan. It is required by the Growth Management Act and includes specific projects, cost estimates, funding sources and strategies to implement the plan.
City staff annually reviews and updates the 6-year plan to ensure it can fund and implement the comprehensive plan vision, showing how the city will provide governmental services at adopted levels of service standards for the existing and projected population growth in the City and Urban Growth Area.
The Planning Commission is responsible for reviewing the plan for consistency with the other chapters of the Comprehensive Plan, holding a Public Hearing, and providing comments to the City Council. City Council is scheduled to adopt the final version of the CFP in December of 2025 (as may be amended by the Council).
The Preliminary 2026-2031 CFP was issued on August 4, 2025, and is available on the City of Olympia's finance department webpage. The Olympia Planning Commission received an informational brief on August 18, 2025. Following the brief, the Planning Commission Finance Subcommittee met to review the Preliminary 2026-2031 CFP in two separate meetings, one of which included staff chapter contributors to answer questions and receive feedback from Commissioners. A Question and Answer document was subsequently prepared that includes Subcommittee questions and staff responses and is attached.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing on September 15, 2025, at which no members of the public provided testimony. The Planning Commission completed deliberations and prepared a comment letter at their meeting on October 6, 2025.
Other City Advisory Committees, such as the Utilities Advisory Committee (UAC), Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), and Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC), review and comment on sections of the CFP related to their committees. Advisory Committee letters are also attached.
Climate Analysis:
The wide variety of projects included in the CFP, to occur over a number of years, can make it challenging to assess changes to emissions. Overall, the projects proposed help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by addressing energy use in city-owned buildings, transportation projects that also benefit bicyclists and pedestrians, and projects designed to increase capacity and efficiency for our drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.
By continuing to serve our community members, as well as accommodating new growth, within the existing City limits and urban growth areas, we are working to create a compact and urban community. This helps us reduce emissions from the transportation sector by promoting active forms of transportation and providing for shorter trips required in order to meet our daily needs. It allows for the delivery of drinking water, sanitary sewer, and stormwater treatment facilities in a contained, compact area which is more efficient and costs less to serve than it would otherwise.
The CFP supports the following portions of the Climate Mitigation Plan:
Reduce energy use in existing buildings.
• Helps implement land use policies that increase urban density and reduce urban sprawl. Compact, walkable communities help increase urban density and reduce sprawl. The CFP includes several transportation projects that support compact environments for bicyclists and pedestrians.
• Increase the efficiency of the transportation system. The variety of multimodal transportation improvements in the CFP aim to provide greater mobility options and consider people trips rather than volume to capacity ratios for automobiles. This considers efficiency of the whole system. It also supports the related strategy of increasing the use of active forms of travel, such as walking and biking.
• Increase the use of public transit. Sidewalks, bicycle lanes, safety improvements and streetlights all support use of public transit.
• Increase the efficiency of water and wastewater infrastructure. The CFP includes replacement of aging and small diameter pipes and projects that address seismic issues.
• Divert more solid waste from landfills.
While not every project will directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by providing the infrastructure and services necessary to support our existing community and anticipated growth within the growth boundary, we can serve a greater number of people efficiently while also providing parks, open spaces, and fire protection.
Equity Analysis:
Equity is considered as the master plans the capital projects generally come from are developed. In addition, equity issues are considered during budgeting decision making. The City strives to balance equity in its capital projects by including projects in various parts of the City, across multiple types of projects (transportation, parks, drinking water, etc.), and by improving accessibility in City facilities (ADA Transition Plan for accessibility). This work is done within the constraints of the funding sources and the limitations associated with many of them.
Some of the high level data that is considered is that in Olympia, roughly 37% of all households are cost burdened, with almost half of those households being severely cost-burdened. BIPOC members of our community are more likely to be cost-burdened than others. Approximately 42% of Olympians have a household income of less than $50,000. Approximately 15% of our population live in poverty. In 2021, 13.5% of people in Olympia have a disability, up from 12.9% in 2016.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
City staff works closely with the Bicycle, Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, and the Utility Advisory Committee to identify and prioritize projects in the CFP. These committees are likely to provide comments to the City Council as well. In recent years, the majority of public comments were related to sidewalk issues.
Financial Impact:
The CFP identifies multiple projects, includes project estimates, and identifies funding sources for capital projects. The plan includes projects totaling $344 million, a $59 million increase over 2025.
The Preliminary CFP includes a variety of funding sources that will be used to cover the costs of these projects. This includes state and federal grants, general facilities charges, impact fees, general funds, use of fund balances, and other financing sources. It also includes transfers from Real Estate Excise Taxes (REET), the Olympia Metropolitan Parks District, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) mitigation fees, Transportation Benefit District (TBD) fees and sales taxes, utility revenues, and voted utility tax.
Options:
1. Conduct a public hearing to accept public comments on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan.
2. Hold the public hearing to accept public comments on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan at a later date.
3. Do not conduct a public hearing to accept public comments on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2026-2031 Financial Plan.
Attachments:
2026-2031 Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan
Olympia Planning Commission Comment Letter
Olympia Planning Commission Q&A Summary
Utility Advisory Committee Comment Letter
Bicycle and Registration Advisory Committee Comment Letter
Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee Comment Letter
City of Olympia Finance Webpage