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Planning director asks council to fund comprehensive plan update; staff propose pairing transportation study to save costs
Summary
Planning director requested about $200,000 for a comprehensive plan update (last adopted 2017) and suggested coordinating a transportation plan update at the same time to realize efficiencies; councilors discussed phasing costs across budget years.
Val Grimes, planning and development director, asked the council to fund a comprehensive-plan update and argued the city should refresh its planning and transportation guidance after roughly a decade.
Grimes told the June 8 budget review that the city’s comprehensive plan was started in 2016 and adopted in 2017 and that many related plans (transportation, water master, parks) rely on the comp plan. She recommended budgeting approximately $200,000 for an update, based on recent consultant estimates for similarly sized communities, and said staff would prefer to do the transportation-plan update concurrently to reduce consultant costs and align mapping and data.
Council members and staff suggested options to reduce the immediate impact, including splitting the cost across two budget years or hiring a consultant to provide a narrower mapping update if full funding is not available. The council did not make a decision during the session.
Grimes said an updated comp plan helps secure grants, provides legal backing for zoning decisions and supports long-term capital prioritization, and noted the last transportation plan dates to 2006 and should be refreshed.
Next steps: staff will return with scope, cost options and potential phasing, and the council will consider the request while finalizing the FY27 budget.
