City Planning Commission Completes Work on Comprehensive Plan
Commission chair Joy Smith says that many minor changes have been made, but no major ones. The Commission is also seeking new members.
The City of Dayton's Planning Commission has worked all year to complete its major update of the Comprehensive plan for the City. The draft plan was approved by the commission on November 5 and sent to the City Council. It has also been reviewed and approved by the state's Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED).
According to Planning Commission Chair Joy Smith, two public hearings were held by the commission prior to its approval. Consultant Don Brigham was hired by both the city of Dayton and Columbia County to help prepare their comprehensive plan updates.
The major review and update of the comp plan is required by the State of Washington's Growth Management Act. Smith says that the purpose of the comprehensive plan is to provide overall goals to guide growth and development in the city and its surrounding areas. "We haven't made any big changes in our vision," she says, "but many of the details in the plan were out of date and in need of update." Smith says that the commission found many instances where elements of the comp plan were not consistent with the city's zoning ordinances. "We've cleaned up many of those areas," she says, "and we'll be able to make changes to the ordinances next year to improve consistency even more."
Major rewrites were made to the Parks and Recreation, and Economic Development elements of the plan.
Smith says that the commission will begin work on updating the city's zoning ordinances in 2008 and hopes to complete that work before the end of the year. She also says that the comp plan and the ordinances will likely be amended on a yearly basis.
Besides Smith, the planning commission currently includes three other members: Heather Hiebert, Kathy George and Jock Nysoe. There are three vacant seats on the commission and the city is actively seeking people to fill those positions. Anyone interested should contact Smith at (509) 539-8773 or Trina Cole at city hall at 382-2531.
City Manager Trina Cole is also the City's planning director. She attends all planning commission meetings and is often joined by the City's legal counsel, Kim Boggs, of the Nealey and Marinella Law office.
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