Lake Stevens planning commission recommends ratifying 2025 comprehensive plan docket

The Lake Stevens Planning Commission voted to recommend that city council ratify the 2025 comprehensive plan docket during its March 5, 2025 meeting.

Principal planner David Levitan presented a high-level summary of the docket, saying the package includes two map amendments and three text amendments and that the planning commission’s recommendation is limited to ratifying the docket for further analysis and public review.

Levitan told the commission the two map amendments are corrective: one would change a publicly owned sewer lift station site on the north side of the lake to a public/semi-public land use and zoning designation, and the other would align the entire Fire Station 81 site with a public/semi-public designation where part of the site currently carried a downtown/local commerce designation. The three text amendments update adopted subarea plans, roll forward administrative demographic and capital-facilities information, and incorporate forthcoming updates to the parks, recreation and open space plan into the parks element.

Levitan said the docket items are city-initiated and that staff found each item meets the comprehensive plan’s ratification criteria in Chapter 1. He noted the project is categorically exempt from SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review and that staff had received no written public comments as of the March 5 meeting. He also reminded commissioners that the substantive analyses required for any individual comprehensive-plan amendment will happen later in 2025.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about practical effects of changing land-use designations for parcels that extend into the lake and whether designations imply public access. Levitan and Commissioner Jennifer Davis emphasized that changing a parcel’s land-use designation to public/semi-public is primarily a policy alignment and does not automatically confer unrestricted public access. Levitan also noted that reclassifying a parcel as a public use can simplify permitting for public projects compared with treating the same activity as a conditional use in a residential zone.

The commission opened the public hearing on the docket and received no oral testimony from the public during the hearing. Commissioner Jennifer Davis moved to close the public hearing; Commissioner Dewar seconded. The planning commission then voted on a motion by Commissioner Morton, seconded by Commissioner Matt, to recommend that city council ratify the 2025 comprehensive plan docket as presented. The motion passed on a voice vote with no recorded opposition or abstentions.

The docket will be presented to the Lake Stevens City Council at a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 11, 2025, where members of the public will have another opportunity to comment. The planning commission’s recommendation to ratify the docket does not approve any individual map or text amendment; it moves the items forward to the detailed amendment process required later in the year.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to open the public hearing on the 2025 comprehensive plan docket: moved by Bruce Norton; hearing opened (voice vote). - Motion to close the public hearing: moved by Commissioner Jennifer Davis; seconded by Commissioner Dewar; outcome: hearing closed (voice vote). - Motion to recommend ratification of the 2025 comprehensive plan docket to city council: moved by Commissioner Morton; seconded by Commissioner Matt; outcome: recommendation approved (voice vote).