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Washington County adopts FY 2025–27 planning work program, citing staffing limits and state mandates
Summary
Washington County commissioners unanimously approved the county’s two-year planning work program, which lists housing, natural resources, transportation and a comprehensive community development code assessment as top priorities while noting limited staff capacity.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners on July 15 unanimously approved the county’s fiscal year 2025–27 Planning Work Program, a two-year biennial list of mandated and discretionary planning tasks that staff say is over-programmed but provides timing flexibility.
County planning staff presented the work program at the board meeting. Carol Johnson, planning and development services manager, said the document organizes 39.73 full-time equivalent staffing across community planning, transportation planning and current planning/development review and lays out ordinances, studies and ongoing work required by federal, state and local rules. "This is a biennial work program," Johnson said. "Most of the work is mandated by state statute and subject to strict timelines."
The nut of the program centers on five themes: housing production and affordability (including accessory dwelling units and rural housing options), natural resources and climate, multimodal transportation planning and funding, plan and code updates (including a comprehensive assessment of the 1,200‑page Community Development Code), and a new fiscal-responsibility item that includes an urban services framework project.
Commissioners focused on capacity and priorities. Chair Harrington said the community development code assessment and prioritizing recommendations "before the end of 2026 is really paramount," noting pressure from recent state legislative actions. Commissioner Treese expressed concern about distinguishing policy work from construction and the county’s bandwidth to deliver: "I don't want us to be in a position of over committing and under delivering," he said. Johnson and other staff said the program is intended to show required tasks and allow the board to direct highest priorities; staff stressed the work program includes flexibility for timing and scope changes.
Staff also described planned transportation tasks: a multi-year update to the Transportation System Plan (TSP) that will take at least three years and will be delivered in chunks (active-transportation plan, complete-streets design update, and a transportation-safety action plan). Johnson said the county has grant funding for an active-transportation plan and expects to finish the complete-streets update in this biennium.
Public input to the online open house included 16 comments and five letters; comments supported housing work and the rural ADU ordinance and opposed UGB expansion. Staff said many comments were about implementation or construction items (for example, sidewalk gaps) rather than policy changes and that funding constraints limit immediate construction responses.
The board voted 4–0 to adopt the FY 2025–27 Planning Work Program and to authorize staff to file associated ordinances. Commissioners who voted in favor were Chair Harrington, Commissioner Treese, Commissioner Willie and Commissioner Fye. Commissioner Jason Snyder was excused.
Looking ahead, staff said individual ordinances and plan amendments will return to the board for hearings and that the board will re-evaluate scope and timing at its August 14 roundtable. The working list in the program will be updated as resource availability and state or Metro mandates change.
