Leavenworth planning commission discusses comp-plan appendices, parking fees and code cleanups

At its June 4 meeting the City of Leavenworth Planning Commission discussed several work-program items tied to the comprehensive plan update, downtown parking policy and broader development‑regulation cleanups.

Planning staff told the commission that consultants had completed appendices required for the comp plan and that the city needs to accept that work so staff can draw a $50,000 grant payment to the consultant; staff emphasized the commission was “accepting that they did the work” rather than adopting final plan elements. Staff said the consultant team will return with additional analysis and that the housing action plan will be the forum for setting longer-term housing goals.

A lengthy discussion followed on parking in the central commercial district, fee‑in‑lieu options and how parking requirements are triggered. Commissioners and staff noted that the current code requires off‑street parking for hotels and for buildings greater than 10,000 square feet in the central commercial zone but that the 10,000‑square‑foot threshold can produce perverse outcomes—developers may design to stay just under the threshold, and many downtown buildings are small footprints that make on‑site parking impractical. Commissioners discussed alternatives: calculating required parking by listed uses and square footage and imposing a per‑stall fee in lieu of construction, or retaining a fee mechanism but changing the threshold so the fee applies more consistently. Several commissioners urged clarity on the per‑stall cost benchmark and lifecycle funding: a one‑time fee would not sustain maintenance, shuttle services or operations tied to off‑site parking, and the commission suggested exploring mechanisms that allow the fee to be earmarked for a parking program or to support shuttles between remote parking and downtown.

Commissioners also identified priority code cleanups: clarifying lot‑coverage increases tied to ADUs (staff proposed 5% additional lot coverage for each ADU), removing or revising the 10,000‑square‑foot parking trigger in central commercial, resolving multifamily lot‑coverage and unit‑density formulas (the current multifamily limit of “one unit per 2,000 square feet” was called restrictive), and revisiting nonconforming‑lot and subdivision rules so small historic lots can be used more flexibly. The commission agreed triplex/missing‑middle code drafting would be a logical next step after the ADU amendments; staff said they will draft triplex language modeled on the ADU approach and bring it back to the commission.

Other topics raised included manufactured housing form and regulation, vacation‑rental permitting and enforcement, landscaping and wildfire‑risk considerations (the fire district encouraged minimum landscaping standards at time of development to reduce fire risk), and code simplification to reduce administrative variance needs. Commissioners asked staff to present prioritized code sections at the next joint meeting with the City Council to get direction on which areas to tackle first. Staff said they would pull a docket for that joint session and attempt to keep the council discussion concise to identify shared priorities.

Commissioners and staff emphasized that many of the items under discussion are not final policy choices but targeted code clarifications or drafting exercises to make the rulebook more consistent and administrable. No final ordinances were adopted at the meeting; staff will return with redrafts and cost/feasibility information for specific proposals such as parking fee calculations and missing‑middle design guidance.