New deadline set for change proposals to Sequim’s comprehensive plan

Residents and developers have a new deadline each year to propose any changes to the City of Sequim’s Comprehensive Plan.

At their March 13 meeting, Sequim city councilors unanimously approved an annual May 1 deadline for public proposals. However, the new amendment states proposals may not be reviewed for up to two years due to staffing levels and time constraints.

City Attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross said the May 1 deadline gives the public time to get their comments in and city councilors time to finalize items they want city staff to review.

“After that, we review and analyze them to determine which ones go forward,” she said.

“We would go through and weigh them. Then go back and make policy decisions on them.”

The updated Comprehensive Plan, also called Sequim 120, was approved in October 2015 to map out guidelines for development and growth within the city limits over 20 years.

Comments submitted by May 1 will be reviewed this year by staff but comments submitted after May 1 may not be reviewed until 2019, Nelson-Gross said.

“The resolution stretches it out as far as we can given our staff capacities,” she said.

“It gives us flexibility to come back (with changes to the proposals).”

The resolution states “(Department of Community Development) staff will conduct its cumulative analysis in 2017 and at least once every two years (after May 1).”

City Manager Charlie Bush said the deadline also would give city staff time to propose policy changes by the end of that given year, but “implementation may take longer.”

Nelson-Gross said the city’s planning department intends to hire a land-use consultant to help review proposals, too.

Assistant City Manager Joe Irvin said the comprehensive plan’s previous deadline for changes was “a date determined by the city council” and requirements to review the plan at least once every eight years stems from the Growth Management Act.

Nelson-Gross said all proposals, mostly public, must be considered at the same time to see how their impacts work together.

Some of the city council’s proposed changes this year include revisiting the need for a grid structure outside of downtown and commercial areas for future development, and revisiting a mandate for garages be built at the rear of homes.

Nelson-Gross said city councilors can bring up specific changes and propose amendments any time separately from the annual deadline and tentative two-year review.

City staff also are working on zone classification tables for the public to cut down on staff workload redundancies and to help better understand zones classified in the Comprehensive Plan.

For more information on the city’s Comprehensive Plan, visit www.sequimwa.gov.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.