Every eight years, early all jurisdictions from the Puget Sound Regional Council to counties and cities across the region, undergo a major update to their long-range plans.
In 2020, PSRC adopted VISION 2050, setting regional growth targets, prioritizing climate change and social equity, and allocating 65% of population growth and 75% of employment growth to occur within a walking distance of high-capacity transit.
Now Snohomish County and its cities are translating these policies into the upcoming major updates of their comprehensive plans. This month, the interjurisdictional governmental body called Snohomish County Tomorrow adopted new growth targets for the cities and other areas of the county. In addition, Snohomish County sought public comment on the scoping of its environmental analysis of its comprehensive plan.
In comment letters sent to the agencies, Snotrac stressed the importance of allocating growth in a manner that would achieve the region's and state's goals for climate change while also building compact communities that would support people with disabilities, older adults, and low income households. We are concerned that the adopted growth allocations will make meeting VISION 2050's 65/75 Policy impossible.
Snotrac will continue to work with the County and cities as they continue to work on their comprehensive plan updates.
Related news coverage:
Snohomish County Sets New 20-Year Community Growth Targets. The Urbanist (12/15/2021)
Snohomish County Contemplates Growth Scenarios Ranging from Urban Infill to Sprawl. The Urbanist (11/24/2021)
County seeks public's ideas on updating comprehensive plan for growth management. My Edmonds News (11/28/2021)
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