Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Comprehensive Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Island County schedules June 23 hearings on comprehensive plan update and code changes
Summary
Island County commissioners voted June 2 to schedule public hearings on a long‑anticipated comprehensive plan update and a separate code amendment that would lift a mixed‑use building moratorium; staff said the planning commission recommended one substantive wording change and 14 people testified at the May 20 hearing.
The Board of Island County Commissioners on June 2 voted to schedule public hearings on two related measures implementing the county's 2025 periodic comprehensive plan update.
Emily Neff, assistant director of the county planning department, told the board the comprehensive plan effort has taken about two and a half years. “We published our final drafts in late April, and the planning commission held their public hearing on May 20,” Neff said. “At that public hearing, 14 people came and gave public testimony. We also received 30 emailed comments.”
The board approved setting a public hearing on the ordinance the transcript identifies as “C 34 26” for June 23, 2026; members later approved scheduling a second, related code‑amendment ordinance identified as “C 35 26” for the same date and time. Neff had suggested that, if needed, the board could continue the hearing to June 24 at 2 p.m.
Neff told commissioners staff made minor corrections permitted under state administrative rules (WAC), and that the planning commission recommended one substantive wording change — a revision that planning staff said could change the intent of a policy and therefore would be up to the board to accept or defer. “That 1 was kind of pulled out as…trying to change the intent of a policy,” Neff said, and staff offered to run the suggested wording by the prosecutor’s office for legal guidance.
Neff also said the code amendments include language to repeal a building moratorium that the county previously had in place for certain mixed‑use areas; she told the board the code could be adopted and put into effect immediately and used even if appeals on the plan or code are later filed, though appeals might prompt later corrections.
The motions to schedule the two hearings were made, seconded and approved by voice vote. The planning department packaged the items as two ordinances to keep the plan and the implementing code changes distinct, Neff said.
The hearings mark the next step in the county's adoption process for a comprehensive plan and related code changes, including the potential repeal of the local moratorium in mixed‑use areas. The board will consider the ordinances after the public hearings and may accept, modify or defer the planning commission's recommended wording change.
