Lake Stevens planning commission recommends 2025 comprehensive plan docket to city council

The Lake Stevens Planning Commission voted March 5 to recommend that the city council ratify the 2025 comprehensive plan docket, a preliminary step that moves two map amendments and three text amendments forward for council public hearing and final action.

Principal planner David Levitan told the commission the docket contains two map amendments and three text amendments introduced at the commission’s Feb. 19 meeting and required to be ratified before more substantive review. "As required by the Comprehensive Plan, Chapter 1, the Planning Commission holds a public hearing to allow for any public testimony in advance of providing a recommendation to city council on ratification of the docket," Levitan said.

Why it matters: ratification does not approve individual plan changes but sets the official docket that city staff and the public will analyze during 2025. Levitan said city council will hold its public hearing on the docket on Tuesday, March 11, giving the public an additional opportunity to comment before any comprehensive-plan amendment approvals later in 2025.

What is on the docket: Levitan described two map corrections: one affecting a sewer facility near the north side of the lake referenced in the packet as "Lewer Sewer Lift Station 1 C," which currently carries a waterfront-residential land-use and zoning designation and is proposed to be changed to public/semi-public; and a second involving Fire Station 81, where the southern portion of the site carries a downtown/local-commerce land-use designation while the northern portion is already designated public/semi-public. Staff recommended both map amendments to make land-use and zoning designations consistent with the comprehensive plan.

The three text amendments, Levitan said, are (1) updates to the city’s three adopted subarea plans to align maps and policy language with the October 2024 comprehensive-plan periodic update; (2) annual administrative updates (demographics, rolling forward the capital facilities element to maintain 6-year and 20-year schedules); and (3) incorporation of forthcoming changes to the parks, recreation and open space (PROS) plan into the parks element of the comprehensive plan.

Public notice and process: Levitan said no citizen-initiated amendments were submitted by the Jan. 31 deadline, so all docket items are city-initiated. Staff published public notice on Feb. 21 and again on Feb. 28 and reported no written comments had been received as of the March 5 hearing. The project is categorically exempt from SEPA, Levitan said, and the commission received no oral testimony at the hearing.

Commission discussion was limited to mapping questions and practical implications. Commissioners asked whether private docks, parcel geometry over the lake, or informal parking at the fire station would be affected; Levitan and other staff said the changes are primarily policy/designation cleanups intended to align public property with public/semi-public land-use and zoning and do not inherently grant any new public-access rights. "Designation of public or semi-public doesn't necessarily equal right to public access," Commissioner Jennifer Davis said.

The formal action: Commissioner Bruce Morton moved to approve the docket as presented; a commissioner identified as Matt seconded the motion. The commission voted in favor; the chair declared the recommendation carried and the docket will go to city council for its March 11 public hearing.

Next steps: if council ratifies the docket, staff will proceed with the detailed substantive analyses required for any individual map or text amendment later in 2025, including any required public outreach and formal approval criteria review.