Hot Topics
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2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review
Port Townsend uses a Comprehensive Plan, called a Comp Plan for short, to chart how we want the city to grow over the next 20 years. The Comp Plan sets big goals and policies, like our land use zones. Development regulations, like height limits, and active plans, like the Urban Forestry Plan, are used to implement the goals and policies in the Comp Plan. Washington State’s Growth Management Act (GMA) requires us to thoroughly review our Comp Plan every 10 years. Our review is anticipated to be complete in December 2025.
The periodic review is an opportunity for us to collectively look at the big picture, see connectivity, and share ideas. It is when we actively compare our current plans and policies with new legislation, ensuring our community is up-to-date, and when we work closely with our community to ensure we all have a voice in planning the future of Port Townsend.
Share your vision for 2045! Over the course of two years, the City will hold a variety of events so that Port Townsend’s diverse residents and workers with diverse perspectives have equal access to providing input to the Comp Plan. Opportunities will include interviews, workshops, Planning Commission and City Council meetings, online outreach, and youth engagement through schools. Visit our project website www.pt2045planning.org/get-involved for a schedule of events.
Lawrence and Tyler Streets Pedestrian Improvements and Street Overlay Project
The city is addressing Uptown accessibility issues through two grant-funded improvement projects. The Lawrence Street Pedestrian Improvements Project focuses on sidewalk and ramp improvements, in response to requests from the community, Jefferson County Farmers Markets (JCFM) and Disability Awareness Starts Here! (DASH). These accessibility improvements are necessary as the first step to eventually repaving Lawrence from Monroe Street to the Public Library. The City is pursuing additional grants to reconstruct pavement on Lawrence Street and is currently assessing the sewer lines under the street in preparation for planning purposes.
The work that is in process now through mid-December includes sidewalk demolition and replacement, and construction of new ramps and intersection concrete bulb-outs that are ADA-compliant. The project will also include a new bus stop, rain gardens, pavement re-striping for bike lanes, tree removal and tree planting.
Water Street Sewer Replacement Project
The Water Street sewer main line, in the vicinity of Water and Grant Streets, collapsed in December 2022 requiring an emergency repair, and collapsed again near the ferry terminal intersection in September 2024. After the initial break in 2022, the City began applying for grants and low interest loans to fund a sewer main replacement. The Water Street Sewer Replacement project is a $2.7M project scheduled to begin in January 2025 with approximately 8 – 10 weeks of construction. Equipment staging will begin mid-December. The project will rectify a decades-old issue common to asbestos concrete pipe, which deteriorates to mush when exposed to gases from sewage.
Evans Vista Housing Development Master Plan
Like in other areas of Washington State and the nation, the lack of local affordable housing supply has devastating ripple effects on families, critical services, our education system, and our local economy. Rapidly rising house prices have driven out individuals and families who have long lived and worked in Port Townsend. Housing is one of five focus areas in the City’s Strategic Plan, calling on the City to “establish systems to support diverse housing options with perpetual affordability.”
Financial Sustainability Initiative
Financial sustainability is critical, allowing the City to meet ongoing and evolving community needs and aspirations over the long-term. Providing basic infrastructure and services that underpin a healthy natural environment, meaningful economic development, and a high quality of life for residents means carefully balancing the community’s ability to generate revenues and to match the cost of services and obligations over the long term.
