Spokane County lays out EIS schedule for parks and resource lands as plan update moves toward 2026 deadline

Spokane County planning staff told the Planning Commission on Jan. 15 that work on an Environmental Impact Statement for parks and resource lands is underway and on a compressed schedule.

"We have to wrap up our work by December," Scott Chesney said, outlining a timeline that would assemble a draft plan by July, have a first full-draft of the comprehensive plan in mid-to-late July, and aim to complete public hearings in October and November with potential Board action Dec. 15. Chesney said study-area maps have been delivered to consultants and that traffic modeling — the first major technical task — is expected back by the end of January or the first week of February.

When the draft is published, Chesney said it will be followed by a 45-day comment period for the public and agencies. "That will give us a 45 day comment period from public and agencies," he said. Staff plans to post materials and an advanced tentative agenda on the comprehensive-plan update web page for public access.

The presentation emphasized that resource lands — agricultural, forest and mineral lands protected under the Growth Management Act (GMA) — require careful mapping and policy work because "once they're gone, they're gone," Chesney said. Staff reported the policy audit and a technical-advisory-committee draft are complete and that the TAC will help translate technical findings into a new vision for the county's agricultural economy.

Chesney also said the county sent soils and study-area maps to consultants to support traffic and other technical analyses and that the county expects to receive draft outputs in the coming weeks to support EIS assembly.

Next steps: staff will post consultant deliverables and the tentative advanced agenda to the planning update web page, return to the commission for chapter-by-chapter workshops through midyear, and assemble the draft plan for public review later this year.