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Anacortes planning staff presents 2025–2045 comprehensive plan update, recommends keeping public comment open
Summary
City planning staff outlined population, housing and jobs projections and new state requirements for the 2025–2045 periodic update, said an urban growth area expansion is not needed, and recommended keeping the public comment period open for additional input.
Anacortes planning staff opened a public hearing Aug. 27 on proposed amendments to the city’s 2025–2045 comprehensive plan, presenting population and housing projections and new state requirements and recommending the commission keep the public comment period open. John Coleman, director of the Planning, Community and Economic Development Department, and Libby Grage, planning manager, led the briefing.
Coleman said the update is a decennial requirement of the state Growth Management Act and covers the city’s anticipated growth for the next 20 years. “We’re expecting just under 5,000 new residents between 2023 and 2045,” he said, and staff projects roughly 2,942 new homes and 3,145 new jobs will be needed to accommodate that population.
The nut graf: the update is both a policy vision and a compliance exercise. The plan must reflect state law changes — including a newly required climate element and requirements to allow accessory dwelling units — and must show that Anacortes has sufficient land and zoning to accommodate projected housing at different area median income (AMI) bands.
Most of the briefing summarized completed analyses and next steps. City staff and consultants completed a land-capacity analysis and concluded the city does not need to expand its urban growth area to accommodate the projected growth; the analysis also maps housing needs by income band. Coleman told the commission the projections are “projections. They’re not targets.”
Grage outlined the plan’s structure and schedule. The comprehensive plan establishes long-range policy; implementing development regulations (zoning, parking, setbacks, subdivision standards) will follow in draft form in September. She reminded the commission that critical areas regulations must also be updated using the best available science and that the overall deadline for plan and development regulation adoption is Dec. 31, 2025, with a potential one-year extension if the city demonstrates substantial progress.
Staff also noted a set of additional, non-mandatory items docketed by the city council (Resolution 31 61) for consideration during the update, including local policies on housing, walkability and historic preservation and several landowner petitions to change future land use designations. Grage said the city will release draft development regulations for public review in September and continue hearings through the fall. She recommended the planning commission keep the public hearing open after the Aug. 27 meeting to allow more written and oral comments.
Ending: the commission opened the public hearing and heard scores of public comments (summarized in separate coverage). No formal plan adoption or commission vote took place Aug. 27; staff intends to carry the record forward into subsequent public meetings and to publish draft development regulations for review in September.
