Kennewick launches 2025 comprehensive plan update, sets public engagement and housing timelines

Kennewick City Council and the Planning Commission held a joint workshop on April 22, 2025, to kick off the city’s 2025 comprehensive plan periodic update. Planning Director Anthony Mowai introduced the consultant team led by Bob Bankford of MAKERS Architecture and Urban Design, which outlined the update’s scope, state requirements and a public engagement strategy.

The presentation described the comprehensive plan as a 20-year outlook that “encapsulate[s] the community’s goals and values” and provides guidance for land use, transportation, utilities, capital facilities and budgeting, while meeting Washington state requirements, consultant Bob Bankford said. Project manager Scott Bongukian added that “the comprehensive plan needs to meet state requirements,” including Growth Management Act obligations, county population allocations from the Office of Financial Management and newly required elements such as a climate change and resiliency chapter.

Why it matters: the plan sets assumptions that drive infrastructure investments, zoning and long-term capital programming. Consultants told council and commissioners that updated demographic, housing and infrastructure data are needed to align the city’s goals with state law and regional projections.

Key points from the presentation

- Required and new elements: The update will cover the traditional elements—land use, housing, utilities and public services, capital facilities and transportation—plus an optional economic development element and the newly required climate change and resiliency element. The team will use a regional model for the climate element and tailor it locally.

- Housing and middle housing: Consultants told elected officials that the state now requires more detailed housing elements, including planning by income bands and accommodating “middle housing.” Scott Bongukian and Tascina (Burke) said the city is implementing HB 1110 (referred to in the presentation as the middle-housing statutory changes) and that code changes enabling middle housing units will be enacted earlier than the comp plan update; the comp plan will be updated to reflect those policy choices.

- Population and land-capacity context: Presenters said county population projections are still being allocated among jurisdictions. The team reported a current planning-range population target in flux—presenters mentioned figures near 103,000–109,000 for Kennewick—and recalled an earlier, higher projection (116,000 by 2050) used in a prior plan. Burke is preparing a land-capacity analysis to compare housing- and job-demand targets with the capacity allowed under current regulations. Tascina said participants in recent interjurisdictional discussions had agreed on an approximate “12,000” housing target figure that will be refined.

- Implementation and parallel tasks: The consultants will produce a housing action plan with implementation steps, perform environmental review consistent with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), and prepare a critical areas ordinance update. Parametric and Transpo Group were named as subconsultants for utilities/critical areas and transportation; Cascadia Consulting will lead climate-resiliency work.

- Public engagement and schedule: The outreach plan includes stakeholder interviews, a three‑meeting housing work group of 10–12 members, online and paper surveys, pop-up events (farmers market, National Night Out) and at least one open-house workshop on the draft. The team said it would launch a project web page within weeks. The consultants estimated a draft plan and elements by winter 2025–26 and adoption workshops with the Planning Commission and City Council in spring to early summer 2026; a calendar target mentioned in the meeting materials was June 30, 2026. The team said a survey sample of roughly 500 responses would be a useful target for a city of Kennewick’s size.

Council and commission feedback

Elected members and commissioners focused substantial discussion on the plan’s proposed vision statement and on making goals and policies more concise and actionable. Planning Commissioner James Hempstead and Council members John Trumbo, Brad Beecham and Jason McShane said the draft vision was too long, vague or read like promotional language. Council members asked that vision language be shortened and clarified so the goals and policies that follow are measurable and implementable.

Council members also asked for earlier check‑ins and more frequent council workshops during the drafting process. City staff and the consultants said they would prepare two to four draft vision alternatives for council and commission review and that they would schedule additional checkpoints and workshops during the summer and fall outreach phase.

Clarifying details noted in the meeting

- Consultants advised that the city’s current plan is text-heavy and that some background material could be moved to appendices to improve usability.

- The code audit will review Title 18 (zoning) and was described as a roughly 300-page set of regulations; consultants said an initial audit draft should be available in a couple of months.

- Stakeholder interviews: Burke will conduct about eight housing-focused interviews; Cascadia may lead climate-specific interviews.

- Housing work group: three meetings; 10–12 members recruited by staff.

- Community engagement target: roughly 500 survey respondents for a city of Kennewick’s size.

- Land-use snapshot: presenters said roughly 49% of the city’s land is zoned residential and industrial land comprised about 6% of parcel acreage (presenters noted this is a typical pattern but on the smaller end for industrial acreage for a city the size of Kennewick).

Next steps and ending

Consultants said they will post a public project page and begin stakeholder interviews and survey work in the coming weeks. They plan to return with draft vision alternatives and the results of public outreach and the land-capacity analysis for planning-commission and council review in late 2025 and early 2026, followed by formal adoption hearings. City staff said they can add periodic council workshops to give earlier check-ins if the council requests them.