Port Townsend officials discuss code updates for year

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 11, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend city staff, planning commissioners and city council members hosted a workshop to find a balance between constrained staff capacity and community aspirations for updating development code this year.

The docket is the official list of legislative priorities and code amendments that the city will commit to processing during the upcoming year. Items placed on it are legally required to be complete within the calendar year, Mayor Amy Howard said.

“We have some capacity limitations in our department,” said Emma Bolin, the city’s director of planning and community development. “We have two professional planning vacancies. We’ve got the Growth Management Hearings Board appeal. We have to do permitting, otherwise housing doesn’t get built.”

Staff must prioritize code updates based on state legislative changes from both the last session and the upcoming session, she added.

Other urgent tasks include managing a state-mandated list of historic properties effective in June, aligning code to reflect the comprehensive plan update, and reviewing affordable housing incentive programs funded by state grants.

Further, staff priorities for the docket include facilitating the possible expansion of multi-family housing and streamlining the process for converting non-residential buildings for residential uses.

Public comment primarily centered on the desire to see work done on updating the code for agriculture within city limits.

Jude Rubin, a Port Townsend resident and co-owner of Shooting Star Farm, said that more than a year ago, advocates for agriculture within city limits were encouraged to pursue an amendment rather than push for substantive change within the comprehensive plan process.

“The amendment that you have is in the format you requested, it’s line in, line out, it is in the form of the code,” Rubin said. “It is imperative that we get it done.”

Comprehensive plans are supposed to reflect widely held community values, council member Fred Obee said.

“I don’t think the current comprehensive plan accomplishes that goal when it comes to agriculture in the city,” he said. “Agriculture in Port Townsend is a big part of our culture and our history. It improves our sustainability, it adds to our food security, it provides fresh produce for school lunches, it fills food bank shelves with produce, it provides jobs that are important to our economic development. With some flexibility, it can even provide affordable housing for farm workers.”

Council member David Faber noted that, prior to the petition for review, filed by a local group in an effort to appeal the housing element of the passed comp plan, he had intended to champion the agriculture amendment for inclusion in the docket.

“The fact of the matter is, staff capacity is going to be at a premium,” Faber said.

Faber noted frustration. If those at Affordable Hometown Port Townsend, which filed the appeal, wanted to encourage affordable housing, tying staff up in the appeal process is undermining that goal.

Howard noted that she plans to meet with stakeholders next week to discuss the amendment they prepared.

“The point of that meeting is to walk through it with the folks who are interested in making that amendment and making sure that it is all feasible things that we can work on over the course of the next year,” Howard said. “To make sure that what is being asked for is both realistic in application and realistic in capacity.”

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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.