Tenino planning commission continues public hearing on 2025 comprehensive plan update

The Tenino Planning Commission on Sept. 17 continued its public hearing on the draft 2025 comprehensive plan to next month after hearing a presentation from the city's contracted planner and public comment.

Melissa Paulson of SCJ Alliance, the city's contracted planner, summarized key changes in the draft, including the addition of an economic development element and a climate element. Paulson said the climate element assesses local climate-related hazards such as wildfire and flooding, sets resilience goals, and identifies actions the city can take to increase resilience. She also said the housing element incorporates the 2023 Housing Action Plan and highlights the need to allow a range of housing types and shelters.

The plan review prompted detailed line-by-line questions from commissioners about citations, program lists and wording. Commissioners asked staff to confirm whether the Tenino Street Tree Plan cited in the appendix is up to date, to consider adding a goal encouraging conversion of remaining septic systems to city sewer to protect the wellhead, and to change wording that references "inner city transit" to a more accurate phrase such as "bus transit" or "transit providers." Staff agreed to check citations, add or clarify goals where appropriate, and provide a corrected draft.

In public comment, Jennifer Colvin, who operates a retail business at the Tenino Agriculture Innovation Park and is developing a USDA meat-processing facility there, urged the commission to prioritize infill within the existing Urban Growth Area rather than expand the UGA. "I would encourage the planning commission to do is to really look at more opportunities for infill development within the existing boundaries of the UGA," Colvin said, adding that intense residential development adjacent to AgPark uses could conflict with established agricultural and industrial activities.

Commissioners also flagged several technical and factual edits: multiple pages lack schedules or estimated costs, the plan should note limits on state or federal funding for short-span bridges and culverts, and the draft climate objectives include some targets commissioners said feel too ambitious. Paulson said she has an updated draft addressing those issues and would circulate corrections.

After discussion, a commissioner moved to continue the public hearing to the commission's next meeting so staff can incorporate the requested edits; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Commissioners asked staff to post notice of the continued hearing on the city website and the city Facebook page.

Next steps: staff will provide a corrected draft that addresses the commissioners' citation, wording and target concerns; the commission will reconvene the hearing at its next monthly meeting to complete consideration of the comprehensive plan update.