College Place planning commission reviews framework for comprehensive plan update and housing capacity analysis

The College Place Planning Commission on an evening workshop reviewed the framework and early assumptions for a comprehensive plan periodic update required under the state Growth Management Act, consultant Justin Berlacher said.

The discussion matters because the comprehensive plan update sets the city’s 20-year population and housing targets, informs whether the urban growth area must expand, and drives future land-use and development-regulation changes that affect housing supply and affordability.

Justin Berlacher, a planner with JEB Engineers and the city’s on-call planning consultant, told commissioners the update will follow the state checklist and coordinated county process and will include a six-step land-capacity analysis: identify vacant, partially used and underutilized parcels; subtract non-developable areas; apply a market factor; estimate unit and population capacity by zone; and compare capacity to the Office of Financial Management population forecasts distributed by the county. “One of our main tasks will be doing this comprehensive plan update as required by the Growth Management Act,” Berlacher said.

Berlacher described the draft definitions and assumptions the county has proposed for the initial land-capacity screen. Vacant land would be parcels with an improvement value of $500 or…