Port Orchard planners review 2025 comprehensive-plan amendment docket, including Sherman Avenue park and rezones

City planning staff reviewed the 2025 comprehensive-plan amendment docket and asked the Planning Commission to review and provide recommendation to the city council before June 30, 2025.

The presentation summarized two city-initiated text amendments — a Sherman Avenue Stormwater Park master plan and a correction to the capital facilities element’s water expenditures table — plus annual updates to the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Staff also summarized three applicant-initiated amendments: one site-specific rezone near Hull Avenue and Sherman Avenue and a separate request to change 13 parcels southwest of Clifton and Lloyd Parkway from industrial to medium-density residential and to rezone from light industrial to Residential R-2.

The comprehensive-plan amendments matter because they guide where Port Orchard intends to allow growth, align capital spending and affect eligibility for grant funding. Staff said the Sherman Avenue project is a city purchase of roughly 30 acres intended to improve stormwater management, reduce flooding and provide neighborhood park space; staff proposes adding the park master plan to the comprehensive plan’s Appendix B “plans adopted by reference.” The capital facilities amendment corrects a misallocation in the water expenditures table so cost projections align with the city’s Water System Plan. The TIP update moves completed projects off the six-year list and incorporates new roadway, transit and active-transportation projects; staff said the update helps the city secure grant funding.

For the applicant-initiated requests, staff said the Hull/Sherman rezone request will be handled via a future site-specific public hearing. For the 13-parcel request southwest of Clifton and Lloyd Parkway, staff said the proposed plan-change would allow multifamily development in R-2 zoning but that the applicants have indicated the site is “likely going to be single-family, detached houses.” Staff noted the site has steep slopes and a stream along its southeast side, which makes industrial development less feasible and that the parcels are not essential to meeting the city’s employment targets. Staff said preliminary analysis shows adequate water, sewer and transportation capacity at the system level, though future development will still need to reserve capacity through the concurrency process.

Planning commissioners asked about funding for transportation and capital projects listed in the TIP and capital facilities element. Staff replied that funding for some Tier‑1 projects is allocated but that many Tier‑2 items rely on grant funding, impact fees and loans; some projects in the six-year TIP may not have fully secured financing. Commissioners also raised concerns about topography and preserving industrial lands; one commissioner said industrial land conversion to residential is common in the region but that Port Orchard needs to balance housing production with maintaining employment lands.

Staff said it will provide public-notice materials for the hearings and return with specific code revisions at the commission’s next main meeting; the commission is expected to hold public hearings and provide recommendations to city council in June.

Less critical details: staff noted the project steering committee recently reviewed public-outreach survey results for the Sherman Avenue park and will conduct a site visit before reconvening in May. No formal vote was taken on the docket at this meeting.