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Olympia planning staff report steady progress toward Olympia 2045 comprehensive plan update
Summary
City staff told the Olympia City Council on April 15 that most chapters of the Olympia 2045 Comprehensive Plan update are drafted, an environmental impact statement is near completion and the city aims to adopt the full plan by the end of 2025.
Joyce Phillips, Long Range Planning Manager in the Community Planning and Economic Development Department, gave the Olympia City Council a progress report on the Olympia 2045 Comprehensive Plan update during the council's April 15 study session.
Phillips said the update will include 12 chapters, adding a housing chapter and a climate action and resilience chapter, and that the city is preparing an environmental impact statement that "should be released in the next couple of weeks, 3 or 4 maybe at the outside." She said staff will bring chapters to advisory committees, the Planning Commission and the Social Justice and Equity Commission before council review, and that the council will be asked to accept individual chapters and later adopt the full plan together.
Phillips told the council that staff are working chapter by chapter and that most chapters have been released: "All but 3 of the chapters have been released," she said. She said the next draft chapters expected are land use and urban design (this month), and the housing and climate chapters (anticipated early next month). The presentation included a tracking table showing which steps in the review process have been completed for each chapter.
The presentation identified multiple staff and cross-departmental contributions and noted that development regulation revisions will follow to keep the code consistent with the updated plan and the requirements of the Growth Management Act. Phillips said the plan is technically due by the end of the year and staff are "hustling to do it."
Council members did not ask for substantive changes to the overall schedule during the study session. The council moved on to chapter-level briefings on public participation and capital facilities later in the meeting.
The city will return to council with additional chapters and, after completing the environmental review and consistency checks, will present the full Olympia 2045 Comprehensive Plan for final adoption.
