Lewis County adopts comprehensive-plan update with land-use and short-term rental rules, multiple amendments

Lewis County commissioners voted 3-0 on Sept. 23 to adopt Ordinance 13-67, a periodic update to the county comprehensive plan and companion development regulations, after approving a series of amendments raised during the public hearing and staff presentation. The ordinance includes zoning map changes, updated development regulations and a new short-term rental permit section that county staff will implement with a Jan. 1 effective date.

The changes implement requirements of Washington’s Growth Management Act and update county codes and supporting documents, Planning Director Mindy Brooks told the commission during a staff report. “Every 10 years, Washington counties and cities are required to update our comp plans to address changes in the state law since the last periodic update and changes in growth,” Brooks said during the hearing.

The adoption carried additional, commissioner-approved amendments that alter how the county will regulate uses and design in both rural and two urban growth areas (UGAs). Key approved changes include: turning day-care, early-learning and kindergarten–through–high-school institutional uses into “permitted accessory” uses on agricultural, forest and mineral resource lands (chapter 17.42, table 2); adding an exception to a site-investigative-work…