Welcome to the Snohomish County 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update Newsletter!

In this newsletter you’ll learn more about the Comprehensive Plan and the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update. View the full newsletter online. Please feel free to forward to anyone who would be interested! A translated version will be available in Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese in early December. They will be published on the 2024 Update Page under the "Newsletters" tab.

• Planning Commission Process
• Summer 2023 Public Outreach
• Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) Open Houses
• DEIS Comment Period Closed October 23, 2023
• How will the Comprehensive Plan Update impact my property?
• Critical Area Regulations Update Status Report

On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, The Planning Commission held a public hearing on the update to the 2024 Comprehensive Plan (video available here). The public was invited to testify before the Planning Commission in writing and orally on any topic related to the 2024 Update. Public testimony is essential so the Planning Commission can understand what is important to the public, and how any changes (or lack of change) could impact the communities they serve. Read more...

County staff visited communities across the county in the summer of 2023 to engage with the public on the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update. A goal of this outreach was to spread the word about the then upcoming issuance of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and two open houses in September. A summary
report of the summer engagement can be reviewed here in English, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Thank you to everyone who came out to meet with us and talk about the future of Snohomish County! Read more...

Snohomish County hosted two informational open house events in September showcasing the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). In addition to the formal presentations to the Planning Commission (video), county staff discussed the various elements of the Comprehensive Plan with the public and answered questions. The second open house followed a similar format to the first and drew over 180 attendees (video).  Read more...

The 45-day public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) ended on October 23, 2023. The DEIS was issued and the storymap and online interactive maps went live on September 6, 2023. The public was encouraged to comment by emailing [email protected], leaving site-specific comments on
the online mapping tool or utilizing the online comment form.  Read more...

Snohomish County is required to update the critical area regulations in parallel with the 2024 update of the Comprehensive Plan, and
to ensure that the codes are aligned with the best available science (BAS). In the winter 2022 edition of this newsletter, the County requested your help in collecting BAS since the last major update of the critical area codes in 2015, and staff are now working on draft amendments for the four chapters of code.

To help with the update, the Washington State Department of Commerce created a checklist that list all of the Growth Management Act (GMA) requirements, as well as guidance and
recommendations from other state agencies like the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). Read more...