Lacey staff outline wide-ranging zoning consolidations tied to comprehensive-plan update

City planning staff on June 11 outlined a suite of draft zoning-code changes intended to simplify Lacey's zoning map, better align zoning with the future land-use map and reduce internal duplication.

Shepherd, a senior planner, told the Planning Commission staff had identified consolidations and textual revisions driven by the goals of the comprehensive plan, public feedback, and the need to reduce the 35 separate zoning designations currently in the code.

The draft recommendations presented to the commission included a number of types of changes: moving shoreline-residential delineations into the Shoreline Master Program instead of showing them on the city zoning map; shifting "urban agriculture" from a standalone zoning designation into a conditional‑use framework; eliminating a village‑center zoning label where master-planning already governs built outcomes; consolidating overlapping business and commercial districts; phasing out the planned-community designation (noting the code currently requires 500 acres of continuous ownership for that review); and folding the last sliver of Mineral Extraction District into a commercial designation once extraction concludes.

Shepherd said the intent of many of the consolidations was to reduce redundancy and improve usability for staff and the public. "Over time the zoning map should progressively look more and more like a future land-use map," Shepherd said. He added that some districts were relics of past master-planned developments and no longer function as intended on the ground.

Staff presented specific examples: much of Central Business District 7 is owned by St. Martin's Abbey and would better fit an open-space/institutional designation; one community-commercial location would transition to neighborhood commercial while another (the southern, big-box area) would better match general commercial; and several mixed‑use and high‑density corridor subzones along Martin Way would be consolidated from three subzones to two while retaining the same permitted uses.

The discussion also noted intergovernmental considerations: parts of the mixed‑use high‑density corridor lie in Thurston County and staff said the city typically leads code updates in the urban-growth area and the county subsequently aligns its code. Staff also warned that property transfers to tribal trust (the presentation referenced "Kwikma/ Kwinmuth Village," a Nisqually Tribe property) would remove that parcel from city zoning when and if the trust conversion is completed.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how existing active uses would be treated, whether active applications would need to reapply, and whether the changes would speed or slow permitting. Staff said the changes are intended to reduce code ambiguity and should shorten review times for many applicants; they also said active mineral-extraction operations would be allowed to continue until concluded and the zoning re-designation would take effect thereafter.

No formal votes or final actions were taken; staff said the draft text and consolidated map changes will be packaged for the comprehensive-plan update, released for public review (staff identified July as a major community review month), and returned to the commission for further refinement before any council action.