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City staff outlines required development-code changes tied to state updates and periodic review
Summary
Planning staff summarized a checklist of development-code amendments Liberty Lake must consider under state legislation and the periodic update grant, including ADU rules, impact-fee options, unit-lot subdivisions, composting standards and tribal MOA requirements.
Planning staff told the Liberty Lake Planning Commission that a range of development-code amendments will be required as part of the city’s periodic update work and state-driven changes.
Director Key summarized the checklist as informational: items include revisions to the critical areas ordinance, updated parking standards, limits on local conditions for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), revised standards for manufactured homes, procedures for unit-lot subdivisions, standards for organic-materials management (commercial composting), and impact-fee updates. “We know that we have to amend the limited use standards for ADUs,” Director Key said during the May 28 meeting.
Staff explained several specifics that will shape code updates. Impact-fee rules must offer an option to defer payment of residential impact fees until certificate of occupancy for single-family attached and detached units; staff said this change is driven by state law and is intended to accommodate construction financing practices. The city must also limit impact fees for ADUs to no more than 50% of the fee charged to the principal unit and ensure impact fees reflect proportionate trip-generation impacts by unit size.
Other items on the checklist include: clarifying standards for adequacy of public facilities for subdivisions and short plats; creating an administrative process for de minimis encroachments and expedited boundary-line adjustments; creating an explicit allowance for religious institutions to host people experiencing homelessness (camping or indoor shelter) or confirming existing coverage through shelter rules; and defining an emergency comprehensive-plan amendment process in the code.
Staff also said the city must include transportation concurrency and demand-management language in its transportation element and sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between local governments and tribes to protect tribal resources as part of countywide planning policy coordination. Director Key noted an MOA among tribes, the county and local jurisdictions was already in process at the countywide level.
Why it matters: many of these items are required by state law or periodic-update rules and will affect permit review, housing options, and fee collection. Several changes will require drafting objective standards, updating impact-fee methodology and coordinating with county and tribal partners.
No formal motions were recorded on these items at the meeting; staff presented the checklist as a preview of the code work that will follow adoption of the comprehensive plan updates.
