Lacey planners say joint council session and open house confirmed direction for comprehensive plan update

The Lacey Planning Commission and city planning staff said public feedback from a Feb. 2025 joint meeting with the City Council and a Feb. open house broadly confirmed the direction staff has taken on the comprehensive plan update, and that the work will move into drafting goals and policies beginning in April.

Commission Chair Gabbin and planning staff said the joint council meeting — which lasted about two and a half hours — helped “level” elected officials and commissioners to the same background on land use, transportation, housing, climate change and resiliency, but staff acknowledged the format required repeating material and limited time for a deeper joint discussion.

Staff said the open house drew roughly 65 attendees and produced substantial input via comment boards, sticky notes and written worksheets. Ryan (planning staff) told the commission the event confirmed survey results and prior outreach: attendees generally supported the broad directions staff are proposing and left feeling heard. Staff said materials and interactive boards from the open house will be posted on the project website at envisiontomorrowlacey.org and that online participation will be available for people who could not attend in person.

Commissioners described the joint meeting as productive but uneven. Commissioners Gail and others said they preferred a less formal, more conversational format for future joint sessions so council members could voice high-level direction rather than jump to specific project ideas. Several commissioners said they want clearer, shared vision statements from the City Council to guide the commission’s drafting work; staff acknowledged that the council is asking for more involvement this cycle than in the last comprehensive-plan update and said staff will aim to present draft goals to the commission and then to council on a roughly one-week stagger to improve iteration.

Staff outlined next steps: staff will synthesize open-house feedback, the online survey and previous outreach into draft goals and policies; the planning commission should expect to begin reviewing those goals and policies in April 2025. Staff also said the city mailed a targeted notice to about 3,000 properties they judged most likely to be affected by mid‑housing changes and will publicize the posted boards and materials to city email lists when the website is live.

Commissioners and staff emphasized that the comprehensive plan work is intended to set 30-year vision and policy direction rather than adopt detailed implementation programs at this stage. Commissioners asked staff to continue clarifying how outreach input maps to draft policies and to flag matters that will need later code changes or capital investment.

The commission also heard a short staffing update: the City will interview three applicants for an open Planning Commission seat next week; the mayor will recommend an appointment, and staff estimated a new commissioner could be seated by April.