AMENDING THE TUMWATER COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

Proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan will be considered no more than once per year, as required by the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA).  All proposals will be considered concurrently so the cumulative effect of the various proposals can be determined.  Emergency comprehensive plan amendments may be made outside of the normal annual amendment cycle if it can be demonstrated that an emergency exists.  Emergency criteria have been adopted by the City council for use in evaluating emergency amendment requests.

Comprehensive plan text amendments can be initiated by the City Council or Planning Commission.  Property owners, citizens or government agencies can propose text amendments for annual consideration by the Planning Commission and City Council.  No fee is required for text amendments.

Comprehensive plan map amendments can be initiated by property owners and government agencies.  A fee for map amendments is set by resolution.

Timelines. Proposals to amend the comprehensive plan shall be submitted to the Planning and Facilities Department no later than the first Monday in December of each year.  Proposed amendments to the Joint Plan covering land outside city limits and within the Tumwater Urban Growth Area must be submitted to Thurston County by the first Monday in August of each year.  Proposed amendments will be reviewed for consistency with criteria described in Chapter 18.60 of the Tumwater Municipal Code.  These criteria are also provided below.

  1. All amendments to this comprehensive plan must conform with the requirements of the Washington State Growth Management Act, Chapter 36.70A RCW, and all amendments for permanent changes to this plan must be submitted to the Washington State Office of Community Development, pursuant to Section 36.70A.106 RCW.

  2. Amendments should be evaluated for internal consistency within this plan, and for consistency with the County-Wide Planning Policies, related plans, and the comprehensive plans of Thurston county or cities which have common borders with Tumwater.

  3. Whether conditions in the area for which a comprehensive plan change/zoning amendment is requested have changed or are changing to such a degree that it is in the public interest to encourage a redevelopment, or change in land use for the area.

  4. Whether the proposed comprehensive plan change/zoning amendment is necessary in order to provide land for a community-related use which was not anticipated at the time of the adoption of the comprehensive plan, and that such comprehensive plan change will be consistent with the policies of the Washington State Growth Management Act.

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Updated: July 14, 2005