Medical Lake staff outline 20-year comprehensive plan update and public outreach

Alisa Rodriguez, senior planner for the City of Medical Lake, updated the council June 3 on the city’s comprehensive plan periodic update, a state-required 20-year outlook that the city revises every 10 years.

Rodriguez said the city has two grants supporting the update: a general grant for the comprehensive plan and development regulations (part of which will fund a standalone transportation plan) and a climate resilience grant that funded a hazard mitigation plan and communications plan to be incorporated into the comp plan. “We have 2 grants,” Rodriguez said, and she described the update as being roughly a year out from adoption if the schedule holds.

Rodriguez described a six-phase process currently in Phase 1 (idea phase), the periodic update steering committee she has formed, and multiple public engagement steps. She told council the city has posted surveys online (including a “pulse of the community” survey open through June 23) and will distribute QR codes at Founders Day. The steering committee includes council member Spears, the mayor, representatives from the planning commission, parks board, school district, Reimagine and the Department of Social and Health Services; Rodriguez said the city hopes to add faith and business community representatives.

Staff emphasized alignment between the comprehensive plan and the capital improvement plan and noted the state-required audit of existing plans and development regulations had identified mostly recent legislative changes to address rather than wholesale rewrites.

Rodriguez said she will return about monthly with updates and that development regulations work will follow the comp plan update timetable.