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Deputy director reports climate element in legal review, housing technical guide progress and Habitat Conservation Plan timeline
Summary
Deputy Director Brad updated the Planning Commission on April 8 that the climate element is in legal review, the housing technical guide is under preparation and the Habitat Conservation Plan is advancing with U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Deputy Director Brad (Community Development) told the Planning Commission on April 8 that several plan elements are advancing through internal and legal review and that staff expect to show the completed housing element and the second part of the land‑use element in coming meetings.
Brad said the climate element is currently in legal review and will next go to the management team before being folded into the full ordinance this fall. "The climate element is now in for legal review, also going to be for management team review internally," he said.
He reported the public‑purposes and utilities chapters have finished legal review and will go to management review this week. On housing, he said the technical guide has reached about 80 pages and staff are working on the diversity chapter and integrating a recent report; his intent was to finish that draft by the end of the week so it can go to legal review. "I'm not making good progress on the housing technical guide. I'm up to 80 pages and we're still struggling trying to figure out the diversity chapter and everything else, but we just got a report that we're trying to integrate into that," Brad said.
On habitat planning, Brad said staff are meeting biweekly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and expect a draft for public review in mid‑to‑late spring; that draft is planned to feed into NEPA/SEPA review timelines. He characterized recent engagement with congressional representatives as speeding cooperation with the service.
Staffing and personnel: Brad announced the city’s current director, Mike Nylock, has given notice and is retiring in May after more than three decades with the city. He also noted Sam Hunter has joined the planning staff as an associate planner in the Permit Division and is on her second week.
What comes next: Brad said staff will continue integrating pending technical reports into the housing element, expect the housing element package to be available to the commission by its May meeting and return with the land‑use technical work for the June 10 meeting.
