PORT ANGELES — The city will have to adjust its zoning eventually to meet growth demands, and the public needs to be engaged in the process, Mayor Karen Rogers told a Chamber of Commerce audience on Monday.
The city’s older neighborhoods are seeing changes as new development occurs on the city’s outskirts, Rogers said.
As the community evolves from one with strictly single-family housing, the public’s commitment, patience and time are needed more than ever, she told an audience of about 100 attending the chamber’s weekly luncheon meeting.
The city needs community input and comprehensive plan changes, Rogers said.
But the public needs to choose to be engaged, she said.
Directing land use planning
The comprehensive plan directs land use planning decisions for the city, affecting residential, commercial and industrial development for the next 10 to 20 years.
The city’s last major revision to the plan was in 2005.
Rogers showed a graphic that depicted the city’s acreage, including its eastern urban growth area, consisting of 6 percent commercial properties, 29 percent industrial, 43 percent residential and 22 percent public buildings, parks and critical areas such as shoreline wetlands.
The city has 17 percent of residentially zoned land available for development, 18 percent of its commercial land and 28 percent of its industrial land, according to the graphic.
