PORT ANGELES — How the city will accommodate a projected 5,000 new residents over the next 20 years will be considered today by the city planning commission.
Commission members will take testimony on policies outlined in the proposed updated comprehensive plan at a public hearing beginning at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The hearing will be followed by a discussion among planning commission members that could result in a recommendation to the City Council.
Under state law, the council must approve the revised land-use roadmap by June 30, Nathan West, city community and economic development director, said Tuesday.
The City Council could hold a first reading of the plan June 7 and a second reading June 21, followed by passage that same night, West told 40 Port Angeles Business Association breakfast meeting participants.
Tonight’s planning commission hearing will mark the 10th formal opportunity for public comment on the plan in public forum, workshop and “community conversation” settings, West said.
Associate Planner Scott Johns said later Tuesday that the plan came out in final form on the city’s website at www.cityofpa.us.
To view a copy of the plan, go to “Meetings & Agendas” on the home page, then click on “Final” under “Agenda Packet” for the planning commission.
Johns said the plan has not been this broadly updated since 2004.
Johns said areas for potential residential growth, including multi-family housing, cover north of 18th Street to the city waterfront in west Port Angeles.
“There are 50 acres of land zoned to become residential that are all completely treed now that are not developed in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Residential expansion opportunities also include the downtown business core, particularly on second floors of buildings, West said.
“Really, what we are trying to accommodate is the overall community’s vision for the future and what they’d like the community to look like 20 years from today,” he said.
The document sets policies for land-use regulations for a city with a population of 19,256 as of July 1, 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state Office of Financial Management has estimated Port Angeles will grow by 5,000 people by 2036.
Input to the plan was added from citizens, planning commission members who discussed the proposed plan at a meeting May 11 and interest groups such as Olympic Climate Action.
“The city should review all new development for impacts on climate change and adaptation to sea level rise,” according to the proposed plan.
The public participation effort, which generated 500 comments on a SurveyMonkey online survey alone, according to Johns, has been coordinated by Studio Cascade Inc. of Spokane under a $61,501 contract with the city.
Ryan Hughes of Studio Cascade will make a presentation at tonight’s meeting.
A vital downtown, fiscal balance, safety and living wages were top priorities by commenters, West told PABA breakfast participants.
“The community wanted to see some attention to downtown,” he said.
“One thing that community members did not want is more strip commercial [developments].”
Rather, he said, many wanted smaller, convenience-type stores, especially in west Port Angeles.
“They didn’t want something so large from a community perspective that it was competing with downtown,” West said.
“We heard a lot about lack of sidewalks, lack of infrastructure connectivity,” he added.
West said the environment, recognizing William R. Fairchild International Airport as an economic asset, addressing homelessness, enhancing the working waterfront and managing stormwater to improve water quality were among unfulfilled comprehensive priorities, according to public comments on the plan.
Comprehensive plan strategies should change “to update our schools” and should address drug abuse and homelessness, respondents also said.
“These are pretty consistent themes we’ve seen across the public process as well as the forums,” West told the PADA.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
