La Center planning commission recommends Downtown and Timon Landing subarea plans with outreach, card-room limits

La Center Planning Commission recommended that City Council adopt the Downtown and Timon Landing subarea plans, the planned-action environmental review and related amendments to the La Center Comprehensive Plan and La Center Municipal Code Title 18, following a public hearing on June 11.

The commission voted to forward a recommendation to city council with two stipulations: keep card rooms limited to the existing card-room overlay rather than allowing them broadly in the C‑1 commercial zone, and direct city staff to perform additional outreach to parcel owners affected by the rezones (staff said a certified-mail follow-up would be sent before the council hearing). The commission chair called for broader, clearer notification after residents and business owners said mailed notices and online materials were difficult to parse.

The subarea plans and the planned-action ordinance are intended to implement a community vision developed over roughly 18 months for a new downtown and the Timon Landing waterfront area. Marty Snell of consulting firm WSP told the commission that the project began with visioning and an existing-conditions analysis and has moved through concept plans to the current proposal. "The community came together to vision what they'd like to see in a new downtown and property at Timon Landing," Snell said.

WSP and city staff described three parallel package elements: the subarea plans…