Benton County, LC residents seek to revive Citizen Advisory Committee as code and comp plan updates begin

Benton County and residents of the LC unincorporated community discussed a plan to revive the local Citizen Advisory Committee and use it to shape a county-led update of the community's development code and comprehensive plan.

County staff described funding from the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to audit Benton County's development code and said the first phase of work will be an audit of current regulations followed by a second phase focused on community-specific policy changes. "We have some funding from the Department of Land Conservation and Development to basically audit our existing development code," said Petra, a county staff member who briefed the meeting. She said contracting negotiations were underway and that the audit's first phase would focus on updating out-of-date portions of the code over six to 12 months, with later work to address policy issues for individual communities.

The county also flagged a state requirement to adopt clear, objective standards for siting housing by July 1, 2025. County staff noted that statewide agencies…