By SUSAN RIEMER

Staff Writer

County representatives will be on Vashon next week to discuss proposed updates to the King County Comprehensive Plan, which guides land use and planning throughout the county, including in unincorporated areas such as Vashon.

A review draft of the updated plan is available online, and the county has begun reaching out to stakeholders and will take public comment until Jan. 6. At Monday’s meeting, county officials will talk about the changes to the plan and how they might affect King County as a whole; they will also be available to address Vashon-specific questions, according to Ivan Miller, the county’s comprehensive plan manager.

At 600 pages, the plan is a complex document, Miller noted, and covers a wide range of topics over 12 chapters, including those that focus on urban communities and rural areas, housing, the environment, transportation, economic development and more. The plan itself is general but is implemented through county regulations and policies, such as zoning codes, the Critical Areas Ordinance and a variety of permits, all designed to be consistent with the plan, he said.

“It is a pyramid, the broadest, longest-range foundation that everything sits on or docks up to,” Miller added.

One of the largest effects of the plan for Vashon will be a new planning program for the county’s Community Service Areas (CSAs) — areas outside of city boundaries. Vashon will be one of the first communities where the planning effort will be launched, with public meetings and other outreach expected to begin after the new year.

Bradley Clark, of the Department of Environmental Permitting and Review, will head that effort and will be at the meeting next week. 

The planning process for the island is expected to take 12 to 15 months, Clark said, and the goal will be to prepare an updated plan for the island that will be submitted to the King County Council for adoption into the King County Comprehensive Plan.

The detailed scope of the Vashon plan has not been determined yet, but Clark noted that topics expected to be addressed include land use, island demographics, climate and infrastructure. As part of the process, a community advisory committee of islanders — not yet formed — will provide guidance and recommendations for the plan’s scope and policies.

Although islanders worked on updating the Town Plan a few years ago, their suggestions were not included at the county level, contrary to their expectations. Now, the existing Vashon Town Plan and Vashon Community Plan are 20 and 30 years old, respectively, and ripe for a thorough review, Clark noted.

While more information will be forthcoming about that process, both Emma Amiad, a real estate broker involved in a variety of social issues, and Chris Szala, the executive director of Vashon Household, say they believe that zoning changes are essential for the creation of more affordable housing on Vashon.

Szala noted that he is familiar with the comprehensive plan’s information about affordable housing, including support for accessory dwelling units and clustering homes, but without updated zoning, many of those ideas could not be implemented on Vashon.

“In terms of reality, that piece in particular needs to be looked at,” he said.

The comprehensive plan has a long history in King County and was first created in 1964 to manage growth in unincorporated areas, according to the county’s website. Twenty years later, when the area was growing rapidly, the county updated it again. In 1990, the state legislature passed the Growth Management Act to protect quality of life in the Northwest. That act called for the state’s most populous and fastest-growing counties and cities to prepare comprehensive land use plans looking forward 20 years. In the ensuing years, the plan was updated frequently, until 2000, when the county began a cycle of updating it every four years.

County officials began their outreach efforts last month with a visit to Vashon, when they came out for a public meeting which they had not publicized, and attendance was sparse. They are returning to hear from islanders and hope the night will include good conversation about a range of issues.

“We’re trying to make it like a dialogue, not a presentation,” Miller said. “We had a good dialogue at the last meeting on Vashon. We’re glad to be coming back.“

The comprehensive plan meeting will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14, at McMurray Middle School. For more information, see kingcounty.gov and search for “comprehensive plan.”