Fife planning commission holds public hearing on 2024 comprehensive plan update, schedules April recommendation

Director Chris Larson, the city’s planning director, presented the City of Fife’s 2024 periodic update to the comprehensive plan at the March 3 Planning Commission meeting and opened a public hearing on the package of amendments.

Larson said the periodic update, required by the Washington State Growth Management Act, replaces the previous document and reorganizes materials into 10 plan elements including a new environmental element, updated land-use and transportation material, a city-center subarea plan, housing, parks, economic development, and utilities and capital facilities. He told the commission there is no action tonight and that the Planning Commission will make its recommendation at the April 7 meeting with city council hearings beginning April 15 and final action currently scheduled for June 24.

Why it matters: the update sets Fife’s policy and regulatory framework for the next 20 years, guides zoning changes, and establishes a city-center development and planned action framework intended to streamline environmental review for qualifying projects around the future Sound Transit station.

Larson summarized public engagement since 2022: two citywide surveys, neighborhood meetings, focus groups, open houses, and more than 30 planning-commission meetings. He said staff reissued the comprehensive plan as a new document rather than patching the 1996 plan and moved data-heavy material into appendices to improve readability.

Major components presented

- Comprehensive plan elements: a new environmental element consolidates scattered policies and adds a climate-change vulnerability assessment, tree canopy and greenhouse-gas analyses. The land-use and city-center elements include a future land-use map and proposed new zoning districts to support transit-oriented development around the planned Sound Transit station.

- Zoning map amendments: staff proposed consolidating and “right-sizing” zones citywide, removing some legacy districts (including a neighborhood commercial designation in selected areas) and creating two new City Center zones (City Center North and City Center South) to implement the city-center vision. Larson said some areas would be rezoned to medium-density residential to meet regional and state housing targets.

- Municipal code changes: staff proposed updates tied to 2023 state legislation cited in the presentation (including changes described as “House Bill 13 37” and “House Bill 12 20” in the staff presentation) on accessory dwelling units, “step housing,” and other housing types; updates to parking, traffic analysis (Title 17.05), and electric-vehicle infrastructure; and administrative design-review standards for the city center.

- City center planned action ordinance: Larson described the planned action as a tool to evaluate cumulative environmental impacts in advance and to set mitigation and performance standards. He said the environmental-impact statement analyzed development limits that would qualify for the planned-action benefits: up to 1,249 net housing units, up to 1,015 net jobs (employment units) and a PM-peak-hour vehicle trip threshold of 1,697 trips. Larson said only developments consistent with the city-center land uses and the ordinance’s development limits would qualify.

Public hearing and next steps

The commission opened a public hearing to record public testimony. Dozens of residents, business owners and project representatives spoke for and against specific rezonings and code changes; the meeting record will be used by staff and commissioners before the April 7 recommendation. Larson said the city will review Department of Commerce and Puget Sound Regional Council comments, meet with relevant resource agencies, and return with a recommendation packet on April 7. Council-level hearings and ordinance readings are scheduled April through June.

Ending

Because there was no action at the March 3 meeting, the Planning Commission will vote on a recommendation at its April 7 meeting. The city’s timeline calls for council public hearing April 15, a study session May 20, first reading June 10 and council action June 24.