Poulsbo Planning Commission recommends spring 2025 code amendments and draft comprehensive plan to city council

The Poulsbo Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Poulsbo City Council approve the spring 2025 code amendments and the draft 2024 comprehensive plan update, moving two linked packages forward for council review.

The recommendations cover the periodic comprehensive plan update required under state law, multiple housekeeping and legislative code changes, and a manufactured-home-park overlay sought by residents. Planning staff told the commission the amendments align city code with recent state legislative changes and the city’s comprehensive plan work, which included an environmental impact statement and updated housing and utility capacity analyses.

The recommendation matters because the comprehensive plan sets Poulsbo’s 20-year strategy for housing, utilities and transportation, and state and regional requirements now direct local jurisdictions to show capacity for specific future population, job and housing targets. Planning staff said the city was required to plan for roughly 5,600 new residents, 4,000 new jobs and 1,900 housing units as part of this update. The plan update included an environmental impact statement — the first such EIS for Poulsbo’s plan since the 1990s — and new appendices such as a housing needs assessment and a racially disparate impact analysis.

Commission action and next steps The planning packet included a motion to “move to recommend approval to the Poulsbo City Council application number P0325-25-01, known as the spring 2025 code amendments, comprehensive plan periodic update, state mandates, and cleanup as identified in exhibit A to the staff report.” A separate motion recommended approval of the draft comprehensive plan (application P0325-25-02). Both motions passed on voice votes; the commission recorded no roll-call tally in the transcript and no member registered opposition during the hearings. Planning staff said the next step is a Poulsbo City Council workshop on June 4, an optional second workshop on June 11 and a council public hearing on June 18.

Public comment at the planning commission hearing included residents of Viking Manufactured Home Park who urged commissioners to forward the manufactured-home-park overlay to council. Resident Irene Bowie told commissioners she lives at Viking Park and said, “we hope that you will recommend this to the city council.” Another resident, Janet Craig, spoke in support on behalf of other Viking Park residents.

A separate commenter, Edie Lau of Tallix Lane, urged the commission to remove a mapped future street extension that she said crosses her house in the Poulsbo Meadows area. Lau said staff had modified the alignment to follow a property boundary rather than cut through her home but that she remained concerned the depiction would encumber her property and limit resale options. Lau told commissioners, “The decisions you make aren’t just about diagrams on a piece of paper or on a computer screen. They manifest as real impacts on real people.” Planning staff acknowledged they had adjusted the alignment and said the mapping change provided “modest relief,” but the transcript records Lau remaining uneasy about the continuing depiction.

What the plans include Staff described several new or updated elements in the draft comprehensive plan: a new health and human services chapter; a housing needs assessment and yearly-update goal for that assessment; an appendix showing how the city would allow emergency housing and shelter beds (staff said the city is required to plan for 83 shelter beds and has zoning capacity shown for 525); and the EIS documenting environmental review of growth alternatives. Staff also noted the plan must be consistent with the Washington State Growth Management Act, the multi-county Vision 2050 regional plan for Central Puget Sound and Kitsap County-wide planning policies.

Commission discussion was brief on the motions after public comment. Commissioners asked staff procedural questions and several thanked the staff team for the multi-year effort; staff noted the Planning Commission had held dozens of workshops over the update process. With the planning commission’s recommendations complete, the package will move to the Poulsbo City Council for the schedule described by staff.

ACTIONS AT A GLANCE - Application P0325-25-01 (spring 2025 code amendments): Motion to recommend approval to Poulsbo City Council; outcome: approved by voice vote; motion text as provided in the staff report (exhibit A); mover/second: not specified in transcript; roll-call tally: not recorded (voice vote). - Application P0325-25-02 (draft 2024 comprehensive plan periodic update): Motion to recommend approval to Poulsbo City Council; outcome: approved by voice vote; motion text as provided in the staff report (exhibit A); mover/second: not specified in transcript; roll-call tally: not recorded (voice vote).

The commission closed the public hearing and approved both recommendations during the same meeting night; public hearings and council workshops are on the city calendar, and staff directed interested parties to the city website for packet materials and upcoming dates.