Thurston County planning commission holds public hearing on Thurston 2045 comprehensive plan update

The Thurston County Planning Commission held a public hearing April 26 on Thurston 2045, the county’s decennial comprehensive plan update that guides land use, housing, natural resources and infrastructure through 2045.

Maya Tippel, senior planner with Thurston County Community Planning, told the commission the update implements state changes to housing and climate law and reorganizes the plan’s chapters, adds a new climate chapter and an implementation appendix, and updates housing projections and the land capacity analysis. “The biggest changes in this update are to reflect new state law requirements on housing and climate,” Tippel said.

The hearing drew more than a dozen public speakers and covered multiple topics that appear in the draft: housing (including Grand Mound and accessory dwelling unit rules), water resources and aquifer recharge, mineral resource and agricultural land designations (including objections from Lake St. Clair-area landowners), wildlife and habitat protections, broadband and telecom service in rural areas, and aquaculture impacts.

Why it matters: Thurston 2045 is the county’s periodic update required by the Growth Management Act (RCW 36.70A). The plan sets policy direction and code changes that will guide where the county expects growth and how it addresses climate, water and natural-resource constraints over the next 20 years.

What the draft does: Tippel and staff described a set of substantive chapter and code changes the commission and public will consider. Highlights listed in the staff presentation included: - A full repeal and replacement of the housing chapter to reflect new state requirements, with housing projections by income level, a land capacity analysis and an assessment of racially disparate impacts. - A new chapter on climate (Chapter 12) addressing mitigation and resilience across sectors. - Reordered chapters and a new Appendix B with an implementation plan containing actions and metrics. - Land-use changes addressing water availability, military compatibility (a new military influence area overlay), conservation subdivision tools, and a possible future agricultural zone. - Code updates for EV infrastructure permitting, solar and energy storage, streamlined permitting for manufactured and mobile homes, allowances for permanent supportive and transitional housing across zones subject to density requirements, and options for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in the Grand Mound urban growth area.

Public comment themes: Speakers emphasized several recurring concerns. - Water and recharge: Longtime resident and retired planner Mike McCormick urged the commission to channel growth into urban growth areas to reduce pressure on water supplies and conserve aquifers. Public commenter Marcy Cleaver urged policies to preserve soil moisture and aquifer recharge, citing scientific literature linking soil moisture loss to broader hydrological change. - Mineral lands and agricultural protection: Multiple Lake St. Clair-area landowners, including Todd Anderson and a nearby resident who said her property is private and long farmed, objected to a proposed mineral-resource designation that they say was drawn without direct contact with property owners and that conflicts with local agricultural uses. Anderson referenced a plan objective stating minerals should not be extracted from agricultural land. - Wildlife, climate and habitat protection: Betsy Norton and Charlotte Persons, representing the Black Hills Audubon Society (soon to be the South Sound Bird Alliance), urged the county to adopt the Thurston County Climate Mitigation Plan and Thurston Climate Adaptation Plan into the comprehensive plan, expand wildlife corridor protections, conserve forests and prairies, and adopt measurable timelines and metrics for climate and habitat actions. - Housing and Grand Mound: Several commenters discussed Grand Mound. A representative of Conco Companies said the company supports increased residential density in residential zones but opposes a county option that would require residential components inside properties zoned commercial arterial, citing safety and compatibility concerns. Charlotte Persons and other speakers raised concerns that detached ADUs in rural areas could increase sprawl and recommended size and proximity limits for detached ADUs (for example, keeping detached ADUs within 30 feet of the primary residence and capping size at 800 square feet, per comments offered to the commission). - Transit-accessible rural housing: Alex Casani, a high school student, urged adoption and resourcing of policy 2.8.0.6 (transit-adjacent rural housing) to encourage affordable rural housing near existing transit and to coordinate with transit providers so housing and mobility investments support each other. - Broadband and telecom in rural areas: Christy White, a Delphi Valley resident, asked the county to press providers such as CenturyLink to improve service in rural Thurston County and to balance expanded cellular infrastructure with concerns about electromagnetic exposure. - Aquaculture and shellfish concerns: Justin Stang, a policy analyst for the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association, and other shellfish stakeholders asked staff to review written comments from Taylor Shellfish and to clarify draft classifications of environmental impacts from shellfish farming, particularly geoduck operations. - Youth health: Northwestern High School senior Zuri Pratt urged county action to reduce youth vaping, suggesting taxation on vaping products and using revenues to install vape detectors in high school bathrooms; commissioners and staff noted health policy is mainly addressed in other jurisdictions but discussed possible connections to county code in future reviews.

Participation and next steps: Tippel said the county has conducted more than 30 engagement efforts and 32 planning commission work sessions. Staff reported the project has received more than 600 comments during its life; as of the packet posted to commissioners the prior day there were 51 written comments, with more submitted before the written-comment deadline on April 27 at 11:59 p.m. Staff told the commission the public hearing record will remain open through that deadline and additional written comments will be forwarded to the commission.

The commission recessed the hearing and kept the public comment record open until the posted deadline. No formal action or vote took place at the April 26 hearing; planning commission actions on the update will be forwarded as recommendations to the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners, which are the final decision-makers on the comprehensive plan update.