Council adds former sleep-center site to comprehensive plan docket after public comment from landscaping business owner

Moses Lake City Council voted to add a proposed comprehensive plan amendment — including a land‑use designation change and matching zone for property formerly used as a sleep center — to the city’s 2025 comp plan amendment docket after a public hearing and a short public comment period.

Acting Community Development Director Vivian Ramsey told council staff’s package would remove sewer/water connection language that applied to the urban growth area (UGA) and would add references to the city’s wastewater plan and the water plan currently in approval. The packet also included the specific request to amend the future land‑use map and the zoning designation for the former sleep‑center parcel to industrial uses and a light‑industrial zone.

Local business owner Dominic Benham, who operates Envious Lawn Care and Landscaping, spoke during the public hearing and said he was seeking the light‑industrial designation so he could lawfully move his landscaping and materials business into the former sleep‑center building. “My goal here today was … to get it to where it would be light industrial so we can move over there legally and rightfully and follow all the rules,” Benham said, describing capacity constraints at his current site and a desire to expand materials retail to lower costs for customers.

Council members asked staff to confirm the docket process and to clarify that adding the item to the docket does not itself approve a zone change; it authorizes staff and the planning commission to process the application through the required public review. Staff noted that a fuller review of the future‑streets map is being deferred to the 2027 comp plan update because additional data are needed.

Councilmember discussion touched on nonconforming uses in the corridor, the existing industrial zoning pattern near the intersection in question, and financing risks for property owners if a use becomes nonconforming. Council then voted to place the request on the comp plan amendment docket and fund staff review and public processing.

Because the docket addition only begins the public process, any zone change or land‑use amendment would return to the planning commission and council for public hearings and a formal decision.

The council’s action moves the proposal into the city’s formal plan amendment process; staff will schedule the subsequent public hearings and planning commission review required under state law and the city’s procedures.