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City unveils draft equity map to guide planning, staff seek public and stakeholder input
Summary
City staff introduced a draft Lacey equity map—covering the city and its urban growth area—that combines five indices (accessibility, livability, education, economy, environment) to help planners and the public visualize disparities and guide equitable policy decisions.
City planners presented a draft equity map to the Human Services Commission on April 3, saying the interactive tool will help the city and community track disparities, inform program decisions and apply equity considerations across planning documents.
Shannon (city staff leading the tool) described the equity map as a visual dashboard combining five indices—accessibility, livability, education, economy and environment—each built from multiple datasets. Most demographic fields (race, ethnicity and foreign-born population) are informational only; the composite equity score is calculated from indices that include measures such as transit access, pavement condition (pavement condition index), walkability, kindergarten readiness, median household income, urban tree canopy and toxic emissions.
The map covers the City of Lacey and its urban growth area (UGA). Staff noted some boundary mismatches because the tool uses census block-group data, which does not perfectly align with municipal boundaries; the draft will be refined before publication. The platform allows users to toggle individual indices, select or draw custom geographic areas (for example, a one-mile radius around City Hall), compare the city to Thurston County and export data and map views for reports.
"The idea is that they allow us a tool to try to systematically evaluate how different community groups could be impacted by a particular decision," Shannon said, describing the map's role in the city's diversity, equity and inclusion work.
Staff described the project team (an interdepartmental city team plus an external consultant) and said they expect to finalize the map and publish it for internal and public use by the end of the quarter or the start of the next quarter. Staff proposed updating the map approximately every two years to reflect new data releases.
Commissioners and meeting participants tested the draft and asked for usability checks and data clarifications; one commissioner suggested a future layer showing nonprofit resources or service providers so users could identify where services are located relative to need. Staff said that idea may be considered for later phases or separate mapping projects and asked commissioners to submit written feedback to staff for incorporation into the final draft.
Staff also demonstrated functionality such as sharing map links, printing map views and downloading datasets, and showed that the map can present the combined equity index or any single index the user selects.
Staff asked commissioners to spend time reviewing the draft and return suggestions to Michelle Chavez and the project team before public release.
