Newcastle council adopts 2044 comprehensive plan after heated debate over DEI language

The Newcastle City Council voted 4-3 on March 18 to adopt Ordinance 2025-669, the city’s updated comprehensive plan (the “Newcastle 2044 Comprehensive Plan”), accepting staff-recommended compliance edits but excluding a set of contested, last-minute Planning Commission changes referred to in staff materials as “category C.”

The vote came after nearly two hours of public comment and more than three hours of council discussion on whether the plan should retain language referencing diversity, equity and inclusion — commonly called DEI — and other policy language some speakers called vague. Community Development Director Erin Fitzgibbons told the council the update is the city’s 10-year comprehensive-plan cycle and that staff believes the version before the council, with the compliance edits the staff labeled “category A,” meets state and county requirements and is fit for submission to the Department of Commerce and the Puget Sound Regional Council.

The council’s adoption matters because the comprehensive plan sets Newcastle’s long-range land-use and policy framework, guides zoning and development decisions, and is subject to…