Comprehensive Plan Amendments

The Comprehensive Plan may be amended once per calendar year.  Each year amendments can be proposed through a public “docketing” process. The Comprehensive Plan was last amended on November 16, 2021 when the City Council adopted Ordinance 2428.

2022 Amendments

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider several amendments to policies in the Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan in response to 2022 Final Docket items DK2022-02, DK2022-03, and DK2022-04.  All three docket items, one each for the North Corner, North Lake and Central West subarea, propose:

  • Adoption of policies to promote diversity of the City’s tax base;
  • Adoption of policies to increase housing opportunities;
  • Redesignating/rezoning some of the parcels to multi-family or small-scale commercial; and
  • Adoption of policies to provide for the creation of a new zone that allows neighborhood-scale commercial activities in areas that are primarily residential.

The Planning Commission’s public hearing on these proposals will be 6 p.m. Wednesday, October 5, at the Carnegie Building (lower level), 105 Cedar Ave.  It will be followed by a City Council public hearing on the same topic tentatively scheduled for November 1, also at the Carnegie Building.

All of the proposed amendments are high-level policies to guide Planning Commission work in 2023 to craft new development and zoning regulations for the three subareas and in 2024 when rezoning portions of each subarea will be up for consideration.

The draft amendments the Planning Commission will be considering are:

For more information about the proposed 2022 Comprehensive Plan Amendments contact Planning Director Glen Pickus and/or download the agenda packet for the October 5 Planning Commission meeting which will include his staff report.  The agenda packet will be available on Friday, September 30, in the Agenda Center.

Click here for more information about the Subareas project.

Docketing

Any individual, organization, business, or other group may propose a text or Land Use Designation Map amendment to the Comprehensive Plan or an amendment to Title 14, Snohomish Municipal Code, the City's Land Use Development Code, by submitting a "docket" application. Affected property owners must agree to site-specific map amendment requests.  

The docket application period for 2023 amendments opened August 1, 2022.  The deadline to submit applications was September 30, 2022.

To download an application click here.

For answers to frequently asked questions click here.

The docket process can be used to propose three types of amendments:

  1. Map amendments to change the Future Land Use designation for specific parcels or areas.  Only property owners may propose a site-specific re-designation.
  2. Text amendment to change an existing Comprehensive Plan policy or to propose a new policy.
  3. Land Use Development Code amendments to change an existing development regulation or to propose a new one.

All docket applications will be compiled and placed on a “Preliminary Docket” list.  The City Council will consider all applications at a public hearing on November 1, 2022, to determine which applications warrant further analysis and consideration.  Those are then placed on the “Final Docket”. 

Placement on the Final Docket does not mean the proposal will be adopted.  Rather, it means the proposal will be analyzed by staff and brought to the Planning Commission for a recommendation to the City Council.

On November 2, 2021, the City Council approved the 2022 Final Docket.  Four new applications, all proposed by the City, were placed on the Final Docket and three more were carried over from previous years’ dockets (all of which have now been completed).  Click here to download the 2022 Final Docket.

The process to amend the Comprehensive Plan is codified in SMC 14.15.020.

For more information about the docket process, contact Planning Director Glen Pickus via email or by calling 360-282-3173.