Thurston 2045 draft released for public review as commissioners spar over rural warehouses and policy language

The Thurston County Planning Commission reviewed the public‑hearing draft of the Thurston 2045 comprehensive plan and discussed next steps, including a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) the county expects to publish for 45 days of public comment. Maya Teepel, Senior Planner for Thurston County Community Planning, presented the packet and told commissioners, “with your last packet that went out last week, you've received your public hearing draft of the Thurston 2045 comprehensive plan.”

The draft packet includes a clean public‑hearing draft, a code package of proposed development code amendments, map packets, and an implementation appendix. Teepel said the county’s education and outreach team reworked much of the plan text to be easier to read — a process staff called “plain talking” — and that the readability edits were applied to the narrative sections, not the policy language.

The meeting focused heavily on Chapter 2 (land use) and the question of whether the draft — or existing county code — permits large distribution warehouses and other non‑resource industrial uses on rural resource lands. Three residents who spoke during public comment warned commissioners that the draft and underlying…