Nestled in the Cascade foothills in East Lewis County along U.S. Highway 12, many residents in Packwood enjoy the quiet, isolated lifestyle and being connected to nature, with elk herds famously wandering through town on a regular basis.
That is largely why more than 70 residents showed up to the Packwood Community Hall on Tuesday, April 8, at a Lewis County Planning Commission meeting to voice their opinions about rezoning proposals in Packwood and the surrounding communities of High Valley, Skate Creek, Goat Rocks and Timberline.
Among the proposals are plans to rezone areas for a master plan resort along with retail buildings up to 20,000 square feet in size. These proposals are part of the county’s larger ongo
ing Comprehensive Plan periodic update.
Rezoning proposals are currently being considered by the planning commission for recommendation to the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), which will vote on whether or not to approve rezoning.
“We’re here to serve you and to make your voice heard to county commissioners, who will make the ultimate decisions here,” Lewis County Planning Commission Chair Frank Corbin said to those in attendance.
Tuesday’s meeting was held specifically for a public hearing for the Packwood-specific proposals, and the planning commission took no voting action on recommendation or any proposals. Additionally, Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer attended the meeting.
There are multiple rezoning proposals, including one developed by the county’s Packwood Subarea Planning group. County staff proposed rezones, including establishing an urban growth area (UGA) in Packwood, according to Lewis County Community Development Director Mindy Brooks, who broke the proposals down for attendees.
“There are a lot of proposed zoning changes throughout the entire county. I’m going to try to clarify what the proposed changes are that affect Packwood and the neighborhoods surrounding it,” Brooks said.
Currently, most of Packwood is zoned small town mixed use, which allows most uses. Proposed rezoning focuses on creating multifamily housing along with switching a lot of the small town mixed use zoning to a rural residential center, which removes commercial use options.
Other proposed rezones include the master plan resort, establishing an official airport district, establishing low, medium and high density residential zones and designating a commercial business district.
The master plan resort area is meant to allow for a resort-style development in addition to already allowed RV parks and campgrounds to help promote the area’s recreation-based tourism industry. In the proposal, Packwood’s master plan resort area would be located just south of Thompson Road.
“There’s already allowed a lot of commercial use … The master plan resort kind of ups the scale of development out there, so it allows something that is more like a Skamania Lodge-type of scale development,” Brooks said. “Why? Because the state wants counties to create spaces with access to unique features like Mount Rainier and White Pass. Is this a foregone conclusion? No. We want to hear from the community about it, and make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners.”
Currently, one other master plan resort zone has been proposed by county staff as part of the Comprehensive Plan update, with the other being at an old TransAlta mine. Another master plan resort location has already been approved near Mineral.
While some residents who spoke during the public hearing were in support of some of the proposed rezoning changes, many were opposed to both the master plan resort and retail zoning plans.
Additionally, Airbnb rentals were brought up, both for causing a lack of affordable housing in the area along with bringing in many tourists who leave trash in the community.
Packwood resident Pat Duncan explained that while allowing for more housing is needed, he anticipates most of it will be bought up by outside investors who will just use them for more short-term rentals.
“If we were to allow the zoning change to change in that area, it wouldn’t achieve your goal of creating more affordable housing. It would add more short-term rentals, and the people that use the short-term rentals don’t respect our neighborhood like the people who live there year-round,” Duncan said. “The people who would develop it, the vast majority don’t live here and they don’t vote here. We should be doing what’s right for the people who live here.”
Resident Lisa Stevens concurred with Duncan, and added she believed the master plan resort was not a good idea either.
“Litter, human waste on trails and parking lot theft are common occurrences. Dumping of garbage and more is out of control in our forests. It’s my understanding that we only have one law enforcement officer in the Gifford Pinchot to deal with the offenders,” Stevens said. “I realize our community survives on tourism, but how much more can we handle here?”
Another resident, Jim Walmar, echoed sentiments about short-term rentals.
“I understand the vacation rentals do bring in a lot of income. They bring in a lot of income to some folks in town, they bring in a lot of income to some folks that live in the county, and they bring in a lot of income to people that have never been to Washington state, let alone Packwood,” Walmar said. “... One of the first things we should do is actually make the Airbnbs follow hospitality rules and regulations. If we do that, we all of a sudden have money for our schools, we have money for our parks.”
He added that, currently, county regulations are loose with regulations concerning short-term rentals, and that 50% of housing in Packwood is already short-term rentals.
In 2022, The Chronicle reported that there were 204 short-term rentals in the greater Packwood area listed on AirDNA, a website that tracks lodging data. In 2025, the site showed 456 in the same area.
“I’ve been in Packwood for a few years and just wanted to bring the voice of maybe a little bit of our younger generation that’s been living here lately,” resident Erik McLaufy said. “There’s a good handful of us, 20, 30, 40 (years old), that work at (White) Pass, work at the (Mount Rainier National) Park, work for the National Forest, and the major concern I wanted to bring up to the committee is none of us can afford houses in Packwood anymore.”
He added he supported any proposal that would help create more affordable housing in the area.
While he thought there were some flaws with some of the proposed zoning changes, Packwood resident Jon Anderson said he supported the proposed UGA as he believed growth was coming to the community no matter what.
“The plan isn’t perfect, but it sure lays the groundwork to move ahead and have something to work from for the changes that are coming,” Anderson said.
Battle Ground resident Dave Campos, co-owner of Commerce Meadows LLC which own's Packwood's historic mill site, also spoke out in support of the UGA in order to help get sewer services throughout the city to try to help protect the local aquifer from leaking septic tanks.
“It’s gonna be difficult to have wells. It’s gonna be difficult to really do much with our riverbed soil (contaminated by leaking septics). And the only real way we’re going to get that sewer in is through the UGA … I think in 20 years when Packwood meets these future goals, and it’s gonna change, I think people are gonna be pretty happy that people in this room are supporting this and doing this work right now,” Campos said. “Because doing it after the growth happens and everybody moves into town, to make things happen after that is a lot more difficult.”
To learn more about the proposed UGA and rezoning in Packwood, visit the county’s Comprehensive Plan update website at https://tinyurl.com/c5c884dy and scroll down to materials, selecting “Task 8 - Packwood.”
For those who missed Tuesday’s meeting in Packwood but would still like to submit comments on the Comprehensive Plan Update, the Lewis County Planning Commission has two more public hearings scheduled, one for April 22 concerning other Comprehensive Plan rezoning proposals and another May 7 for Onalaska-specific rezoning proposals.
Both will be held starting at 6 p.m. at the Lewis County Community Development & Environmental Health Building, located at 125 NW Chehalis Ave. in Chehalis.
Written testimony on any of the rezoning proposals — including the ones in Packwood — within the Comprehensive Plan update can also be sent to Brooks at mindy.brooks@lewiscountywa.gov up until the public testimony deadline on May 7.
The Lewis County Planning Commission anticipates its recommendations will be up for final approval by the BOCC in June or July.
