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Kittitas County staff to draft resolution to pause annual comprehensive plan docket for 2025–26
Summary
County planning staff proposed pausing the 2025 and 2026 annual docket for comprehensive plan amendments to avoid conflicts with a two-year periodic update; commissioners agreed staff should prepare a resolution and coordinate legal review and public notice.
During a meeting, the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners directed staff to prepare a resolution to pause the county's annual comprehensive plan docket for 2025 and 2026 to avoid overlapping or conflicting amendments with a two-year periodic update process.
Chad Vela, CDS director, told commissioners that staff members are concerned an individual application processed through the next annual docket could be superseded by larger changes adopted during the county's two-year periodic update. Vela said Commerce had indicated pausing the annual process would be acceptable but that any pause must be enacted by resolution. He summarized the regulatory constraint as: "WAC 3 65 1 96 6 10 3 basically states that, you know, we may not conduct a periodic review and a docket of amendments has separate processes in the same year." Vela added that if the county pauses the annual docket, staff would provide public notice by email and newspaper posting.
The commissioners expressed support for pausing the annual docket while the county conducts the in-depth periodic update. Commissioner 1 said he was supportive, and Commissioner 3 said the work would be "pretty, in-depth and deep analysis" and that pausing made sense to avoid undoing work later. Vela also noted that development regulations such as road standards could still be processed separately and that staff plans to review the draft resolution with legal counsel before placing it on a future agenda.
No formal motion or vote to adopt the pause occurred during the discussion. Instead, staff were directed to draft a resolution, route it for legal review, and return it for formal consideration at a later meeting. Vela specified the intended public-notice methods: email to interested parties and publication in the newspaper. He also said the county would continue required notifications to Commerce and pursue hearings on development regulations where appropriate.
Next steps: staff will prepare the resolution to pause the annual docket for 2025 and 2026, review it with legal staff, and seek placement of the item on an upcoming meeting agenda for formal action.
