PRESS RELEASE- City Council Adopts 2025 – 2045 Comprehensive Plan

Council adopted the updated Comprehensive Plan, development regulations, and the Active Transportation Plan.

December 15, 2025 PORT TOWNSEND – After final deliberations at its December 15 meeting, the Port Townsend City Council adopted the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review. Adoption of Ordinance 3361 contained all amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, development regulations, and the Active Transportation Plan. The Comprehensive Plan serves as a 20-year roadmap, touching on everything from climate resilience to housing toeconomic development. After two years of regular public engagement and dedicated work from staff, consultants, Advisory Boards, Planning Commission, and City Council, the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan is momentous for the City and community.

Per the Growth Management Act, Port Townsend is required to conduct a Periodic Review of the Comprehensive Plan and development regulations every ten years. The last Periodic Review occurred in 2016, with the deadline for completing the current review and related amendments set by the 
Department of Commerce as December 31, 2025. Project management for the update began in 2023,under the leadership of Planning and Community Development Director Emma Bolin and Long RangePlanner Adrian Smith.

To guide public participation during the Periodic Review, Council adopted a Public Participation Plan on April 15, 2024. Under this plan, staff held or participated in at least two meetings or events per month from May 2024 to December 2025. Deputy Mayor Amy Howard, who presided over the December 15 meeting, stated: “I know that the City staff put a lot of effort into making this process as inclusive as possible, more than I have ever seen in ten years working with the City.”

City Manager John Mauro said: “I want to thank everyone who showed up throughout this process. Early in 2023, we started planning our community engagement on this top City priority. We held over 70 Comprehensive Plan events with community participation, including 45 open public meetings, numerous focus groups, open houses, a three-day studio, walking tours, and community-led events. Diverse input and perspectives from this extensive engagement helped inform the plan adopted by City Council. We look forward to celebrating and implementing this significant milestone with the community in early 2026.”

In the December 15 meeting, City Council also passed Resolution 25-035 related to the 2026 Annual Amendment process for the Comprehensive Plan and development regulations. Optional annual amendments can occur outside of the ten-year update to ensure the plan stays current with state law and local needs. City Council voted to close the docket to suggested amendments in 2026 but stated they would like to consider whether the 2026 workplan and docket can support revisiting certain 2025 Periodic Update items that were not selected for amendment earlier this year.

During the meeting, Councilmembers encouraged the community to stay engaged as implementation of the plan occurs. Deputy Mayor Howard said: “I am in favor of continuing to work through all of the challenges and pieces in implementation. I am interested in hearing from people how it impacts them on the ground when those changes happen. I see directly and immediately on a daily basis the challenges. People are struggling to find housing that is affordable to them, outside of the definition of affordable housing. Someplace that they can live in Port Townsend where they can be a part of this community.”

The adopted 2025 Comprehensive Plan will be available on the City’s website by December 24, 2025, with the amendments effective on December 29, 2025.

Background

The Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review was conducted in two phases. 

• The first phase is docketing, the creation of a list outlining types of amendments under consideration. This includes reviewing state law to determine mandated amendments and extensive public participation to identify and prioritize locally suggested amendments. 
• The second phase is post-docketing, where staff prepare draft amendments based on the docket and share the drafts with the public. The first step of this update includes inventories for Housing, Transportation, and Capital Facilities and Utilities. Staff then prepared updates to each element (i.e., chapters) of the Comprehensive Plan. Based on the 2025 Periodic Review Docket, this included creating new elements for Climate Resilience, Parks, Recreation and Open Space, and Goals, Policies, and Implementation Actions. The updated elements were presented to the Planning Commission for review and discussion during a series of meetings from May 22, 2025, to October 9, 2025 (thirteen meetings total). The public was invited to comment at each meeting. The public was also engaged via the City’s Comprehensive Plan mailing list, City Newsletter, open public meetings with other advisory boards such as Climate Action Committee and Parks Recreation Trees and Trails Advisory Board, focus groups, Council meetings, pop-ups at the Farmers Market, and open houses.

Based on mandatory amendments, guidance from the Department of Commerce, and public participation from May 2024 to January 2025, staff and Planning Commission compiled the preliminary docket of topics of amendments to consider during the Periodic Update. Planning Commission held an open public hearing on the preliminary docket’s scope and schedule for updates, recommending it to Council for approval. Council adopted the docket following an open public hearing on February 18, 2025. The docket directed staff to focus edits and upcoming engagement and outreach on mandatory amendments under the Growth Management Act, amendments related to housing, density, climate resilience, parks, open space, arts, edits to make the goals and policies easier to understand and implement, the adoption of an updated Critical Areas Ordinance, adoption of an Active Transportation Plan, and adoption of an updated Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan.

Of the amendment types approved on the preliminary docket, the Critical Areas Ordinance was approved earlier in 2025 and the updated Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan has been scheduled for hearings in 2026. The Active Transportation Plan, amended Comprehensive Plan, and amended development regulations are all included in the Periodic Review under Ordinance 3361.

On July 7, 2025, City Council reviewed regulation options that would make middle housing more feasible to develop. Staff requested Council’s direction on the following topics: types of middle housing to allow in Port Townsend, zones to allow middle housing, permitted density, heights, setbacks, lot sizes, lot coverage, design standards, and parking requirements for middle housing. They also reviewed incentives 
for affordable and workforce housing, administration of middle housing regulations, and encoding middle housing regulations.

On October 23, 2025, Planning Commission held an open public hearing to consider the amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, development regulations, and adoption of the Active Transportation Plan under the Periodic Review. The Commission considered public comment, deliberated, and moved to adopt the findings and conclusions, recommend adoption of amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations, recommend the adoption of the Active Transportation Plan, and recommended that Council consider materials submitted at and following the public hearing. 

On November 17, 2025, City Council held an open public hearing to consider the amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, development regulations, and adoption of the Active Transportation Plan under the Periodic Review. During the hearing, Council considered public testimony and a staff presentation, then moved to close public testimony and keep the record open for additional written comments until 
4:30 pm on Monday, November 24, 2025. Council further moved to continue the hearing to date certain, November 24, 2025.

On November 24, City Council continued the open public hearing to consider the amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, development regulations, and adoption of the Active Transportation Plan under the Periodic Review. During the hearing, Council considered public testimony, deliberated, and 
discussed the proposals with staff. Council moved to close the hearing and to adopt the first reading of the Comprehensive Plan, Active Transportation Plan, and Port Townsend Municipal Code. 

On December 8, 2025, City Council held a regular meeting where they continued discussion on Ordinance 3361. During this meeting, City Council considered public comments, along with a staff presentation summarizing comments from the Department of Commerce and other state agencies, 
along with responsive edits based on Commerce’s feedback. Council motioned to postpone the second reading of Ordinance 3361 to December 15, 2025.

                                                                        #                                               #                                                     #

Listen to meeting recordings and access Council meeting packets referenced above here, under City 
Council Archives 2025: https://cityofpt.us/citycouncil/page/agendasminutesvideos

Find information on the Growth Management Act here: Growth Management Act

Access the City’s Comprehensive Plan website for more background information: https://www.pt2045planning.org/