PRESS RELEASE - City to Appeal Growth Management Hearings Board Final Decision & Order
Council prefers a parallel process of judicial appeal while addressing the remanded sections of the Comprehensive Plan.
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
PORT TOWNSEND – In a Special Meeting on Monday, August 24, Port Townsend City Council voted to appeal the August 19, 2026 Final Decision and Order of the Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) to Superior Court with the understanding that staff and Council will begin work on the Comprehensive Plan issues outlined in the Final Decision and Order. Additionally, City Council issued a one-year moratorium on all five and sixplexes in a good faith effort to address concerns around public participation on a late amendment to the City’s development regulations on density. These development regulations were the primary concern raised by the appellants and the GMHB. These parallel actions are the best path forward to potentially allow the City to remain eligible for state grant funding, directly supporting infrastructure and affordable housing projects, and to provide permit predictability. Council’s decision to appeal is also based on the importance of judicial clarification of implementing the Growth Management Act (GMA), which has statewide impacts for all cities.
"Appeals are a normal part of the planning process for a city. Yes, the Growth Management Hearings Board decision will mean real tradeoffs, pulling time and resources away from other strategic work we'd planned for 2027. But this process ultimately makes the City stronger, and it may lead to better outcomes, like specific programs to incentivize affordable housing. We hope the whole community stays engaged as this moves forward,” said Mayor Amy Howard.
While the appeal process moves forward, and being mindful of resources and cost, staff and Council will immediately begin to address the issues detailed in the Final Decision and Order specific to the remanded elements of the Comprehensive Plan, including Housing, Capital Facilities, and Transportation. While these sections are still in effect, they were found to be non-compliant with the GMA and require corrections to come into compliance. Much of the housing-related sections remanded by the Final Decision and Order were included in the City’s 2026 implementation workplan as the City transitioned from adopting the Comprehensive Plan towards putting it into practice.
Steve King, Acting City Manager and Deputy City Manager said: “The current Comp Plan was based on the Department of Commerce guidance available to us at the time and builds on past Port Townsend plans and policies carried forward from the early years of GMA in the 1990s and the last 2016 update. It is the City’s responsibility to support the work of the community from then to now, especially the work done in over 70 public meetings over the last two years, which is the basis for the Comprehensive Plan. It is with gratitude for broad community participation that the City upholds many of the values the community voiced during the Periodic Review process. In particular, the public clearly articulated a desire to remove barriers to housing and expand housing choice in a community where working people are increasingly struggling to afford to live while protecting quality of life such as open space.”
Once appealed to Superior Court, the City will seek a stay of the Final Decision and Order from the GMHB. If granted, a stay would allow the Comprehensive Plan and the implementing development regulations to remain in effect as adopted on December 15, 2025 to help mitigate the significant impacts non-compliance has on the City’s services in our community. While the City works to correct the remanded items, if a stay is not granted, the City will be ineligible for certain new grants and low interest loans, which will impact current and future projects, like streets, our water system, sewer system, and other essential services.
Additionally, there is ambiguity in the Final Decision and Order regarding which development regulations (zoning code) the GMHB invalidated. This presents challenges for administering the City’s development codes which may negatively impact the issuance of building and land use permits over the next year. If granted, a stay of the Final Decision and Order would provide predictability to project permitting, pending the Superior Court appeal. In particular, the City wants to make sure that affordable housing projects can continue as planning and implementing these projects can take many years. Some housing providers have already sought to utilize the new development codes to facilitate development cost effective affordable units.
The full extent of the impact of the GMHB Final Decision and Order will continue to require additional analysis with City Council as the City enters the 2027 budget season and considers its 2027 Strategic Workplan, where the City hopes the remand process will dovetail with Council priorities to further the affordable housing initiatives. Staff will develop a work plan and cost estimate for the parallel tracks of appeal and remand work in the coming weeks, and it is anticipated that the process will require a minimum of a year to address. Despite the GMHB’s decision, most areas of the Comprehensive Plan are still valid, align with community values, and demonstrate compliance with State law.
In a hat tip to the Comprehensive Plan, on August 14, 2026, prior to the GMHB decision, the City was notified that Port Townsend won the 2026 Excellence in Planning Award from the American Planning Association (APA) of Washington in the Small Cities & Counties category for the 2025 Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations.
“My hope for this process going forward is that the voices of the community who participated in earnest and that the countless hours of the planning commission and City Council over the least 2-3 years are not lost, but rather accentuated with this remand process. Port Townsend has been a progressive community for years in an effort to make this world a better place through leadership. This Comprehensive Plan builds upon the past with progressive policies intended to make a difference related to our community’s greatest challenges and opportunities. I'm both grateful and honored to be a part of this process,” said King.
Background
Under the GMA, cities and counties are required to adopt a Comprehensive Plan, which is a community generated vision document including goals and policies that detail how a county or city will manage and accommodate future growth. The GMA sets sideboards for planning to facilitate local decision making tailored to each community while addressing change and required population growth. The goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan are implemented through empowerment of the community to participate in their city’s growth, capital investments, development regulations, economic development activities, city budgets, and the city’s core services. The GMA requires cities and counties to periodically review and update their Comprehensive Plans on a ten-year cycle.
Find related documents on the City’s website here: https://cityofpt.us/administration/page/2025 comprehensive-plan For questions about the Growth Management Hearings Board, please see the Growth Management Hearings Board website.
