Fife Planning Commission recommends 2024 comprehensive-plan update to council with zoning amendments

The Fife Planning Commission on April 7 voted to recommend that the City Council adopt three ordinances that together comprise the city’s 2024 periodic update to the comprehensive plan, municipal code and the City Center planned-action ordinance, subject to two zoning amendments the commission approved during the meeting.

The commission’s recommendation — on ordinances 2139 (comprehensive plan), 2140 (development-code and zoning-map amendments) and 2141 (city center planned-action ordinance) — advances a package of changes staff said are required by the Washington State Growth Management Act and by recent state laws affecting housing and land use. Director Chris Larson told commissioners the update includes updated zoning maps, nine comprehensive-plan elements, technical appendices (transportation level of service, housing capacity and environmental analyses) and the city-center environmental-impact statements that underpin the planned-action ordinance.

Why it matters: the periodic update sets Fife’s land-use rules and capacity targets for the coming decade, including the city’s housing and employment targets drawn from the county and regional allocation process. The commission’s recommendation now moves the ordinances to the City Council, which will hold a public hearing April 15 and is scheduled to act later this spring.

Key amendments and votes

- Harry Smith Road: The commission approved an amendment to retain single-family zoning on Harry Smith Road rather than rezone it to medium-density residential. The amendment passed during the meeting (the record shows the motion carried and one commissioner registered an abstention). Director Larson noted that recent state law changes allow middle-housing configurations in single-family zones and that, for many Harry Smith lots, the practical difference with MDR would be small because lot sizes limit larger multifamily buildings.

- Firwood (Papé/Papé Group alternative): The commission voted to adopt the Papé (also referenced in the record as Pepe/Pape/PAP A) industrial alternative for the Firwood neighborhood rather than staff’s recommendation or a competing Vector Development Company proposal. The roll-call discussion in the record shows the amendment passed on a divided vote (the commission recorded a split vote in the meeting transcript and an abstention was recorded). A later motion to instead rezone the Firwood Vector alternative to industrial failed.

- Main…