Between now and the deadline for the county’s comprehensive plan update in June of 2025, residents in unincorporated parts of Lewis County have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to share their concerns, values and dreams as the population inevitably grows.
Residents just need to show up to meetings or email input to Lewis County Community Development staff. But, in the first of a series of meetings, hosted at the Adna Grange Hall on Oct. 23, there wasn’t a single attendee.
When development is proposed next door, it’s too late, said Senior Long-Range Planner Mindy Brooks. Instead, now is the time to say which neighborhoods should have fast food restaurants, which should have resorts and which should be reserved for farming, forests and other natural resources. That’s what the comprehensive plan dictates, and it is required to be updated every 10 years, in accordance with the Growth Management Act.
“Why should people care? Because this is their voice,” Brooks said in an interview on Monday. “We’re going to be looking at housing, businesses. We’re set to grow by 20,000 people in the next 20 years. And I can’t control the economy and the markets that drive growth, but we can have a voice in managing it.”
Brooks is set to host meetings on Nov. 28 at the Salkum Timberland Library at 5:30 p.m. and on Nov. 30 at the Mineral American Legion building at 5:30 p.m. The county is also planning meetings in the unincorporated communities east of Morton and in South Lewis County.
Cities in Lewis County are also on the same timeline for comprehensive plan updates, but those are completely independent of the county.
The recent proposal for a new YMCA camp on the shore of Mineral Lake is a relevant example for the importance of the comprehensive plan. The county and the nonprofit are currently at odds over whether or not to zone the YMCA’s land as a “master planned resort,” which would allow for construction of the camp. During the comprehensive plan update process 10 years ago, the county could have made more specific rules about where master planned resorts can be constructed.
Because the county is involved in ongoing litigation with the YMCA, Brooks didn’t comment on that case specifically.
Throughout the update process, she encourages people to think about growth on the long-term scale.
“It doesn't feel like it's impacting you this minute,” she said. “And it isn't impacting you this minute, but the decision is being made now.”
In the meetings and throughout the whole process, Brooks said she will welcome all kinds of feedback, positive and negative. Lewis County’s unincorporated communities each have their own character, Brooks said. With the comprehensive plan, residents can make specific design standards for new construction, or, more broadly, suggest the best places for new housing and other changes.
“There's this tension, always, between ‘We have to grow some and we know it,’ but, ‘We really want to hold on to those important parts of our identity out here in the rural area,’” Brooks said. “We need to talk about what those parts are with people. What is it that you want to hold onto?”
There are some parts of the plan update that are dictated solely by the state, she said. This time around, those include climate change resilience planning and increasing the kinds of housing that can be built. In Packwood, where Brooks lives, a lack of available — let alone affordable — housing is costing the community its beloved businesses.
“You don't hear 'People don't want to work,' you hear, 'There's nowhere for them to live,'" she said of the East Lewis County town.
As another example of the opportunity presented by the plan update, Brooks said Packwood’s only grocery store is Blanton’s, which is “the quarter of the size of a Safeway.”
“Is it important to have more affordable groceries in town?” Brooks asked. “I think that’s a pretty reasonable question.”
Learn more about the comprehensive plan update and how to provide input at https://lewiscountywa.gov/departments/community-development under the “Comp Plan & Development Regulation Amendments” tab. For more information, contact Mindy Brooks at mindy.brooks@lewiscountywa.gov or 360-740-2610.
Planned Growth Committee and Lewis County Planning Commission meetings are both open to the public. The former meets on the third Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m. in the Lewis County Courthouse and includes representatives from all Lewis County’s cities.
The planning commission meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. on the third floor of the Lewis County Courthouse, 351 NW North St., Chehalis, or on Zoom.
