Planning commissioners review draft land-use goals, housing proposals for Lacey comprehensive plan update

The Lacey Planning Commission on April 23 received presentations on draft land use goals and policies and on the housing element of the city’s comprehensive plan update. Ramey and Associates consultants Ron Whitmore and Mitali (Natalie) Ganguly presented a 13-goal land-use framework emphasizing compact mixed-use development, walkable neighborhoods, neighborhood-scale commercial centers and continued strategic annexation. Planning staff also reviewed a draft future land-use map and described several parcel-level changes and rezone requests the city has elevated for additional review this cycle.

Ron Whitmore told commissioners the land-use framework was developed from the existing 2016 comprehensive plan, countywide planning policies, state Growth Management Act requirements and public outreach during 2024. Whitmore said the framework integrates new state directives, including environmental justice considerations, and ties each proposed policy to relevant comp-plan elements and community priorities gathered through recent surveys and visioning sessions.

Consultant Natalie Ganguly summarized several policy priorities: promoting compact, mixed-use development coordinated with transport and utilities; establishing walkable neighborhoods to improve public health and safety; encouraging neighborhood-scale mixed-use centers to support local businesses; and continuing selective annexations while monitoring fiscal impacts. She said the draft land-use policy tables (in the staff packet) identify whether policies are adaptations of existing guidance or newly proposed.

Hans (city staff) reviewed a draft future land-use map and noted several adjustments carried forward from rezoning requests and prior public input. Among the map changes shown: several small institutional and open-space areas were relabeled to reflect current ownership and use (for example, city-owned park expansions and a police station site moved to an open-space/institutional designation), some light-industrial parcels were proposed to shift toward mixed use because of adjacency to residential areas, and mixed-use designations were split into “commercial-leaning” and “transitional” categories to reflect areas where ground-floor commercial is intended versus areas where a more even mix of residential and commercial is expected.

On housing, Planning Division staff reviewed new state mandates and recent legislation that broaden how jurisdictions must plan for housing types and income ranges. Staff said an analysis of land capacity and housing needs shows Lacey has sufficient land capacity to meet Department of Commerce housing targets for this planning cycle. The draft housing element proposes nine goals, including ensuring housing availability and choice, promoting equitable distribution of housing, supporting affordable and attainable housing solutions, encouraging compatibility and sustainability, expanding solutions for people experiencing homelessness, maximizing efficient use of resources to support housing stability, mitigating displacement (including strategies to preserve manufactured-home communities), and coordinating regionally and with stakeholders.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about minimum residential densities around mixed-use centers and how that standard would support neighborhood businesses; consultants said minimum densities are intended to create a critical mass of nearby households so small, neighborhood-serving businesses can be viable. Commissioners also discussed the state law changes that expand allowable housing types (including a comment in the meeting referencing House Bill 1998 and co‑living/single-room-occupancy options). Staff said code amendments to reflect newly allowed housing forms will be drafted in a later stage of the update.

Next steps: staff will prepare a public-facing story map and post the draft land-use and housing materials for public review this summer; the draft will be taken to City Council for briefing in two weeks and released for a formal public-review period after further internal edits. The commission will receive subsequent presentations on transportation, economic development, utilities and environment as the comp-plan update continues.

No formal vote or recommendation on the comprehensive plan text or map occurred at this meeting; commissioners provided feedback to guide the next drafts.