Planning commission and council lay out 2026 docket priorities; comprehensive plan and development-regulations top the list
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Summary
Planning staff presented an annual docket that ranks the 2026 comprehensive-plan update and development-regulation amendments as the top priorities; commissioners recommended additional 'code cleanup' tasks (driveway/parking/vegetation/sidewalk maintenance) and discussed whether to examine formula retail and marijuana retail regulations.
Planning staff and the commission presented the annual docket and asked the council to align priorities for the coming year.
Speaker 5 (planning commission staff) summarized the commission's work over the past year — including ADU regulation updates, triplex and residential design standards, work on parking, and a long-running code update — and said the comprehensive plan must be adopted by the end of 2026. She said the comp-plan update and the development-regulation revisions mandated by state law were the commission's top two priorities and estimated many planning-commission meetings will be necessary to complete the work.
Council and commission members discussed potential secondary items, including formula retail restrictions and marijuana retail licensing. Some council members warned that regulating formula retail could invite litigation and may not be worth the effort unless there is an imminent threat; others suggested keeping it as a low-priority or tertiary item. The group also discussed whether to open a community conversation about allowing marijuana retail (no dispensaries currently operate in the city). Speaker 11 cited county-level marijuana sales figures for Chelan County in 2024 ("12,000,000") and cautioned about how revenues and distributions work, while other members raised tourism and character concerns for the downtown.
Staff proposed a code-cleanup placeholder for targeted chapter reviews (driveway setbacks, off-street parking, vegetation maintenance and sidewalk maintenance) that could be slotted into meeting downtime between the major tasks. Commissioners and council members agreed to return with more details and to prioritize mandatory state-law work.
Why it matters: the comprehensive-plan and development-regulation updates are legally required and will guide land use, zoning, and future development in Leavenworth; choices about secondary topics such as formula retail and marijuana retail affect local economic strategy and downtown character.
What happens next: staff will refine the docket and return in June with additional detail and code-cleanup proposals; mandatory code changes tied to the comp plan and state law will take priority.