Medical Lake launches comprehensive plan update, wins $125,000 state grant and extends deadline to 2026

Alisa, a city staff member overseeing planning, told the Medical Lake Planning Commission that the city has begun a two‑year update of its comprehensive plan and has been awarded a noncompetitive grant of $125,000 from the state to support the work.

The update will meet new state timelines after recent legislation extended the periodic‑update deadline to the end of 2026, Alisa said. ‘‘We just got an extension for everything to be due at the end of 2026,’’ she said. The work will proceed in phases: initial outreach and visioning, concept and storyboard development, drafting, screening and adoption. Staff must also submit a state checklist and the final land‑capacity analysis by June 13.

The grant is split across two state biennia, Alisa said: ‘‘We first have our 62,500 that we have for this first year, and then we get another 62,500 for the following year.’’ She said some consultant costs for communications and public engagement will come from the grant and that her own staff time will cover additional work.

Why it matters: the comprehensive plan sets policy guidance and informs zoning and development regulations. Alisa said the project will also feed into a separate development‑code update that the city expects to complete later in the process.

Staff outlined a public‑engagement program that includes a steering committee (which includes a planning commission representative), a participation plan, a series of in‑person popups (Founders Day on June 21 was cited as a firm date) and online tools. Two anonymous surveys are already live on the city website, and staff said the city will post a weekly social media question to broaden input. Alisa described the outreach as layered: steering committee review, community engagement, planning commission check‑ins, and iterative revisions.

Alisa said staff hopes for a relatively strong response for a city of Medical Lake's size and offered benchmarks: ‘‘For a community the size of Medical Lake, about 5,000, I think... a hundred responses would be really effective.’’ She also noted the local employment base that draws nonresidents into the city daily: ‘‘There's 1,750 employees rolling in and out of Medical Lake on a daily basis to Eastern State Hospital and Lakeland Village.’’

Alisa explained required technical deliverables: the state checklist (a detailed inventory of statutory requirements), the land‑capacity analysis (which records whether current zoning can accommodate the state‑assigned population growth for the next 20 years) and a two‑part work plan for the plan and development code. ‘‘One of the things I'm required to do by the state is called a checklist... it's due June 13,’’ she said.

Commissioners asked about outreach channels and survey distribution; Alisa said the surveys will appear in the utilities newsletter, on Facebook and on the comprehensive‑plan web page and that the steering‑committee members (school district and major employers) will share the engagement opportunities through their own newsletters and networks.

Alisa added that staff contracted a communications consultant to develop a communications playbook paid in part from grant funds: ‘‘Part of this year's grant funds is covering the cost of our communications plan. We have a communications consultant that's helping the city draw up this plan to really strategize and... create a playbook, toolkit for communications.’’

Next steps: staff will complete required submittals to the Department of Commerce by June 13, continue steering‑committee meetings and public outreach through late 2025 and begin the development‑code drafting that will follow the adopted comprehensive plan. The adoption process will include planning commission recommendation and a city‑council ordinance and hearing schedule.

Alisa said the city intends to aim for adoption of the comprehensive plan before the end of 2026 and to complete development‑code work thereafter. ‘‘I'm relatively confident we can get that development code finished by the end of the year of 2026,’’ she said.

Taper: staff encouraged commissioners and residents to fill out the surveys, attend outreach events and to check the comprehensive‑plan web page for summaries of public input.