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Medical Lake staff unveils proposed amendment criteria to guide yearlong comprehensive-plan update
Summary
City planner presented three sets of proposed amendment criteria that will guide Medical Lake's comprehensive-plan and municipal-code changes over the next 12 months and described how the criteria align with the Growth Management Act and countywide planning policies.
Medical Lake planning staff introduced proposed amendment criteria the city will use during a yearlong comprehensive-plan periodic update, saying the new standards are meant to replace a single, hard-to-apply approval test that dates to the late 1990s.
"This is what every other amendment you'll see in the next 12 months will be based on," said Alisa, the city planner who led the presentation. She told the planning commission the current chapter (17.56) is difficult to apply and that the new draft will reference the Growth Management Act and relevant RCWs rather than restating state law.
The proposed framework separates criteria for three amendment types: comprehensive-plan text or map changes, development-regulation amendments and zoning-map changes. For comprehensive-plan amendments, staff said proposals must be consistent with the Growth Management Act, Spokane Countywide planning policies and the city's own strategic and capital-facilities plans. For development regulations, staff highlighted implementation of the comp plan, compliance with GMA requirements (including urban growth boundary and critical areas protections) and ensuring that proposed changes do not create unsustainable service costs.
On zoning-map amendments, staff listed four proposed criteria including consistency with the comprehensive plan, maintenance of housing capacity and income stratification required by state law, not adversely affecting provision of city services, and producing long-term community benefit. "We have to step back a moment and not just think about the benefit for that particular property owner, but how it affects the city as a whole," Alisa said.
Staff said the periodic-update steering committee, which includes council, planning commissioners, representatives from Lakeland Village and Eastern State Hospital, and other community partners, will help shape outreach and review proposed changes. A Facebook Live outreach event is scheduled for Dec. 10 at 6 p.m., and the commission's next meeting on these topics will include a public hearing on the draft language.
The commission approved on a voice vote a recommendation to appoint Joe David Belize as the planning commission representative to the steering committee. Staff said the city aims to complete the title- and chapter-level reorganizations during the update so future amendments are clearer for applicants and reviewers.
The planner said commissioners should review the two-page comparison of existing and proposed criteria ahead of the public hearing and be prepared to provide questions or suggested edits at the next meeting.
The matter will go next to the City Council for review as part of the periodic-update process; the planner will return to the commission with a staff report and draft language for formal recommendation.
