Kittitas County begins public outreach and technical work for 2026 comprehensive plan periodic update

Planning staff told the Kittitas County Planning Commission on May 13 that the county has launched a periodic update to its comprehensive plan — required under the Growth Management Act — and will run an accelerated schedule to meet statutory deadlines and funding opportunities.

“it is required, under the growth management act to do a periodic update to your comprehensive plan. Every fully planned jurisdiction has to do this every 10 years,” Planning staff Reinsley told the commission. Reinsley described an outreach program that includes in-person pop-up events at the Saturday farmers market and a senior-center event in Cle Elum, a live community survey, and additional summer and fall outreach. The staff presentation said draft plan chapters will be prepared over the summer and brought to the commission in advance of the 2026 periodic-update schedule.

The county is also piloting subarea planning for Easton; staff said Easton’s residents and local stakeholders are engaged and that the Easton subarea will serve as a model for other subarea plans. Reinsley said the county will use a combination of mapping, draft chapters and targeted meetings to get community input and to produce actionable goals and near-term actions rather than only high-level objectives.

Technical items discussed at length included population and housing projections, the land-capacity analysis methodology, and the relationship between county and city planning in urban growth areas (UGAs). Staff said the Office of Financial Management (OFM) population and income inputs were used to produce housing projections distributed to cities; the county selected a medium projection in the model and a land-capacity tool that allocates households at or below 50% of area median income (AMI) to urban growth areas and cities. That method — and the OFM AMI figure mentioned during the meeting (approximately $107,700, as stated by a commissioner quoting Commerce figures) — drew questions from commissioners about how seasonal and part-time residents can skew AMI and how that affects eligibility for state funding.

Commissioners and staff also discussed recent state legislation affecting code changes the county must implement. Reinsley said staff have begun drafting code updates to comply with the ADU bill referenced during the meeting (referred to in the meeting as "1337"), which will require permitting at least two accessory dwelling units on qualifying parcels in certain jurisdictions; the county will bring those code changes through the local code cycle and hold study sessions with the commission before asking for recommendations.

Other items raised included GIS capacity and staffing losses that have limited the county’s mapping resources, the county’s land-ownership map (staff said more than 70% of county land is publicly owned), critical-areas ordinance updates (the county adopted a major update in 2021 and staff do not expect large changes but will review best-available science), and channel-migration-zone mapping and enforcement concerns. Several commissioners encouraged preparing formal findings to the Board of County Commissioners on AMI methodology and other topics to preserve those concerns in the public record.

No ordinance, code amendment or formal recommendation was adopted at the May 13 meeting; staff committed to return with draft chapters, code language and study sessions in the coming months and encouraged commissioners and the public to submit written findings or comments that could accompany a future recommendation to the board.