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Pasco planners urged to 'hold the line' on commercial land as conversion requests rise
Summary
City staff told the Pasco Planning Commission that commercial land capacity is 'just enough' to meet 20-year job projections and recommended policies to make commercial-to-residential conversions difficult; commissioners broadly supported holding the line and asked staff to return with code options.
City staff told the Pasco Planning Commission that Pasco has a narrow commercial land capacity and urged policy steps to slow or block conversions of commercial parcels to residential use. The commission heard that the city currently has about 532 acres of vacant commercial land and 143 acres considered underutilized, and that the existing land base supports roughly 7,800 commercial jobs and about 13,000 jobs total including industrial uses.
"We have 532 acres of vacant commercial land and 143 acres of land that's underutilized," Director Matson said, summarizing the staff land-capacity analysis. Matson said the city projects about 13,000 new commercial and industrial jobs by 2046 and that, based on present designations, Pa sco has only enough commercial land to meet those projections over the next 20 years.
Matson described roughly 30 comprehensive-plan amendment requests filed during the update window; of those, he said 8–10 proposals seek commercial-to-residential conversions that could total on the order of 100–200 acres if approved. He also noted a city audit finding of approximately 3,400 instances where zoning does not match the future land-use map, a legacy of rapid growth that staff plans to fix in the update process.
"If we lose our commercial land, we may be in a deficit," Matson said, urging the commission to give staff direction to develop policies that make conversion difficult and to discourage submittals during the current update cycle. He said staff will work with consultants to propose safeguards while accounting for state rules that can limit local bans or restrictions.
Commissioners voiced strong support for preserving commercial inventory. "Once commercial is given up, it's obviously difficult to get back," Commissioner Dana Crutchfield said, urging protection of sites that serve regional destinations. Commissioner Pat Jones warned that piecemeal approvals could cause a slow erosion of commercial acreage and highlighted "retail leakage" — local spending that goes to stores in neighboring cities — as a reason to keep commercial land locally available.
Commissioners proposed a mix of approaches: strengthening rezoning hurdles, incentivizing business development on existing commercial parcels (including faster permitting and better customer service), and requiring mixed-use proposals to retain ground-floor commercial. Staff said it will evaluate applications case-by-case but intends to discourage pure commercial-to-residential conversions during the update and will return with draft policy and code options for commission and council review.
Next steps: staff will refine the quantitative analysis with consultants, prepare policy options for the comprehensive plan and municipal code, and present drafts to the commission and council during the coming update cycle. No final decisions were requested at the workshop; staff sought direction and received general commission alignment to prioritize preservation of commercial land.
