Kitsap County staff presented a work study on the Year of the Rural — a set of proposed changes that would reestablish a Rural and Resource Lands chapter in the county comprehensive plan and propose related code updates and reclassification requests.

Scott Deener, manager of planning for the Department of Community Development, and long-range planner Heather Cleveland led the presentation. Cleveland said that once the board approves the Year of the Rural program, it will become the county’s Rural and Resource Lands chapter in the comprehensive plan (the county’s comprehensive plan was adopted December 2024).

The proposal contains three primary deliverables: a draft Rural and Resource Lands chapter, a package of proposed code updates (including child care and equestrian standards), and staff recommendations on three reclassification requests that were carried forward from the comprehensive plan process. Cleveland said the draft also recommends performing a focused rural lands analysis to attach numeric goals and better align development capacity and protection strategies in rural areas.

Community outreach summarized by staff includes two public surveys (more than 1,000 responses to an initial survey in February–March 2025 and roughly 100 responses to a more technical survey in June–July), three regional workshops in June, three CAC presentations, an open house on Sept. 11, and a public comment period that opened Sept. 2 and runs through Nov. 10. Staff said they will publish a comment matrix and responses before the commission’s deliberations.

Why it matters: The chapter would re-surface rural policy as a stand-alone element of the comprehensive plan, guide decisions about rural character, resource lands (forestry, mineral, agriculture) and introduce a concept staff called “working lands” to recognize non‑zoned agricultural activities. Several proposed code changes and reclassification requests could affect property rights, land use and local businesses.

Key program elements presented by staff:
- Rural and Resource Lands chapter: goals and strategies for rural development, resource lands, rural business and rural environment, and a recommendation to conduct a rural lands analysis.
- Code updates proposed: childcare (align definitions and add predictable conditions), equestrian facilities (new administrative and conditional use permit structure and site standards), agriculture code (exceptions for shipping containers for agricultural refrigeration, expansion of agricultural building sizes, and notification procedures), and others slated for later work.
- Reclassification requests: three properties under consideration with mixed staff recommendations (one recommended for approval, one recommended for conditional approval with advice to aggregate buildable area, and one staff-provided no recommendation pending further review).

Process and next steps: Staff said the Planning Commission will deliberate on Oct. 7 and Oct. 21 (findings and recommendation). Staff will produce a revised draft (a “clean 2”) for the Board of County Commissioners; the board’s deliberations were scheduled for late November and a potential adoption meeting on Dec. 8.

Staff emphasized that the draft is a work-in-progress and that additional public testimony opportunities will be available to the commission and the Board of County Commissioners.