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Benton County wins $50,000 DLCD grant to launch voluntary periodic review and community engagement
Summary
County staff said the Department of Land Conservation and Development awarded a $50,000 grant to help Benton County design and begin community engagement for a voluntary periodic review of the comprehensive plan; staff seeks commission input on consultant selection and subcommittees.
Benton County community development staff told the planning commission Jan. 2 that the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) awarded a $50,000 grant to support an initial community‑engagement phase of a voluntary periodic review of the county’s comprehensive plan.
Darren Nichols, community development director, said the grant is intended to fund two linked tasks: development of a best‑practices community‑engagement strategy and use of that strategy to collect countywide input on priorities for comprehensive‑plan updates. "We have a $50,000 grant from DLCD to hire outside capacity to help us employ a best practices community engagement strategy and then use that community engagement strategy to inform some general sense of priorities for comprehensive plan updates," Nichols said.
Staff said the county will solicit and vet consultants to help with the work and that commissioners are invited to participate in advisory or subcommittee roles. Nichols outlined three broad topic buckets the county, board and commission have identified as priorities in past discussions: (1) wildfire risk management, transportation and outdoor recreation; (2) water and data‑informed public policy (groundwater, surface water, stormwater, drinking water and flood issues); and (3) housing, which staff said ranges from overnight shelters to executive housing.
Shannon Bush and Darren said the grant supports both creating the engagement policy and carrying out outreach. "Ideally...that $50,000 would do both things, help us develop the policy and also use the policy to engage some 2 way dialogue with those parts of the community," Nichols said. Staff said they expect to start work immediately on consultant selection and to conduct outreach in spring and early summer 2024.
Staff asked commissioners to consider volunteering for subcommittees on (a) community engagement/consultant selection, (b) a code audit and (c) housing-related work tied to periodic review. Nichols said county staff will follow up individually with commissioners to gauge interest and that staff will also prepare a short survey for commissioners to indicate topic preferences.
