File #: 14-0363    Version: 1
Type: recommendation Status: Filed
File created: 4/7/2014 In control: Land Use & Environment Committee
Agenda date: 4/17/2014 Final action: 4/17/2014
Title: Comprehensive Plan Policies Regarding Scenic Views
Attachments: 1. OPC CPU Skyline White Paper 11/14/2011, 2. Minutes record RE: View Protection Goals and Policies
Title
Comprehensive Plan Policies Regarding Scenic Views

Recommended Action
City Manager Recommendation:
Recommend to City Council that the following replacement for Land Use and Urban Design policies 8.1 and 8.2 of the December 2013 Final Draft Comprehensive Plan be included in a Public Hearing Draft of the proposed Comprehensive Plan update:

PL 8.1 Through a public process using appropriate methods, for example visual simulations, identify important landmark views and observation points and appropriate means of preserving and enhancing valued aspects of these public views.

The Planning Commission's recommended policies 8.1 and 8.2 in the December 2013 Draft Comprehensive Plan currently read:

PL8.1 Implement public processes, including the use of Olympia's digital simulation software, to identify important landmark views and observation points.

PL8.2 Use Olympia's digital simulation software to identify view planes and sightline heights between the landmark view and observation point.

Report
Issue:
Should Olympia's revised scenic view policies specifically call for use of "Olympia's digital visual simulation software" and other specific techniques?

Staff Contact:
Todd Stamm, Principal Planner, Community Planning and Development, 360.753.8597

Presenter(s):
Todd Stamm, Principal Planner, Community Planning and Development

Background and Analysis:
At its February 25, 2014, meeting, the City Council referred five issues in the Draft Olympia Comprehensive Plan to the Land Use and Environment Committee for a recommendation. Among these were two scenic view protection goals and policies as recommended by the Planning Commission.

Current Comprehensive Plan

Olympia's current Comprehensive Plan includes a policy to "Protect, to the greatest extent practical, scenic views of the Capitol Dome, Budd Inlet, Mount Rainier, the Black Hills, Capitol Lake, and the Olympic Mountains from designated viewpoints and corridors." (Comprehensi...

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