Planning commission moves 2024 Comprehensive Land Use Plan toward November discussion; members ask for more review

Planning staff presented the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan 2024 and asked the Planning & Zoning Commission to review content issues before staff places the document into final design for council consideration.

Staff said the steering committee last met Sept. 25 and that the draft (including appendices) has been on the city website for public comment. "We literally started this in April '23," a staff member said, noting chapters on land use, housing and transportation and asking commissioners to flag substantive content concerns rather than grammar while the consultant finishes formatting.

Commissioners praised the breadth of public engagement—staff said about 1,100 survey responses were received, representing roughly 10% of households—but several members pressed for clarity on how survey percentages should inform future rezoning decisions. One commissioner noted chapter 3’s finding that more than 65% of survey respondents said there is too much multifamily residential development and asked whether that should influence votes on proposed multifamily rezonings. Staff replied that the engagement appendix and chapter summaries would help put those statistics in context and that data represents households and workshop inputs across multiple events.

Members suggested improvements to the plan’s presentation of engagement results, asked that appendices be provided to the commission, and discussed timing. The commission agreed November will be a discussion item (not a final vote) to allow more review; staff will provide an executive summary and the engagement appendix ahead of the next meeting. Council presentation and formal readings will follow once the planning commission is comfortable with the draft.

No formal vote on the plan occurred at the meeting.