Lacey staff unveil draft comprehensive plan goals emphasizing climate, housing and reduced vehicle miles traveled

Ryan Andrews, community planning manager in Lacey's Community and Economic Development Department, presented the draft goals and policies for the city's comprehensive plan update and asked the commission for feedback on how to move the package to public review.

The draft frames the plan around six community priorities — connected neighborhoods; public health and safety; a diversity of housing types; preservation of natural resources; community identity; and economic vitality — and layers in state mandates, including a new climate element. "This is kind of our centerpiece of local planning efforts," Andrews told the commission.

The plan matters because it sets the city's land-use, housing, climate and transportation goals for a multi-decade horizon and will guide zoning and public investments. Andrews said the draft will be released to the public around July 1 for a summer comment period and the city is aiming to complete the adoption process by the statutory deadline at year-end.

Most immediately, the update adds a climate element required by state law and divided into two subelements: greenhouse-gas reduction and climate resiliency. Andrews said the resiliency work relied on a vulnerability and risk assessment and Thurston County's 2022 greenhouse-gas inventory and will include policies such as opening public facilities during heat or wildfire-smoke events. The greenhouse-gas subelement must address community emissions and, for the first time, state guidance requires cities to identify actions to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Andrews said the community's two largest local sources of greenhouse gases in Thurston County are buildings and transportation.

Housing is another central thread of the draft. Andrews reviewed recent state bills that the plan must reflect — including changes affecting accessory dwelling units and higher-density infill — and said the city is developing regulations to allow more units per lot where required. The update incorporates a racially disparate impacts analysis that flagged manufactured-/mobile-home tenants and "naturally occurring affordable housing" as groups at high risk of displacement. Commissioner Hedgewood, citing University of Washington research presented at a recent forum, noted an expanded inventory of parcels with historic racially restrictive covenants in Thurston County and urged the city to use the comprehensive-plan process to address lingering inequities.

Land-use and transportation policies in the draft are intended to work together to reduce VMT by encouraging housing near jobs and improving multimodal options. Andrews said the transportation element will be a substantial update to the 2012 plan, streamlining numerous goals and adding focused policies for safety and network quality. He also noted the state requirement to consider environmental justice when siting uses and services — an issue in Lacey that the city maps as most directly affected by air emissions from Interstate 5.

Andrews emphasized that much of the draft arises from community outreach and technical analysis: the team cataloged state checklist items, a vulnerability assessment for climate resilience, outreach comments (39 comment submissions at a February open house on the climate element), and technical inventories. He characterized the earlier use of the word "audit" as a checklist exercise against state requirements rather than a backward-looking performance audit of prior plan goals.

On organizational commitments, Andrews said the city has set an internal target to "achieve net 0 by the year 2050" for municipal greenhouse-gas emissions, covering buildings, fleet and water pumping. He outlined local programs the plan would support, including partnerships to install heat pumps for income-qualified residents.

Questions from commissioners probed details such as what the climate resilience policies would mean for urban-tree preservation versus solar access, how the transportation proposals would address unincorporated urban-growth areas, and how infrastructure resilience (stormwater and the electrical grid) will be handled when utilities are not city-owned. Andrews pointed to coordination with Puget Sound Energy and regional partners where local authority is limited.

Next steps: Andrews said the draft goals and policies will be reposted for public review about July 1, followed by public hearings and further revision before the city seeks formal adoption. "This is still a work in progress," he told commissioners, urging continued feedback.

Ending: The commission suggested the plan include clearer introductory language describing Lacey's values and urged stronger accountability measures and reporting. Commissioners and staff asked that the draft link directly to related documents such as the city's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging strategic plan and regional technical inventories so reviewers can see how elements interlock.