PORT ANGELES — Despite many failed motions to amend the comprehensive periodic update, the Port Angeles City Council did approve the plan itself.
The council met for 41/2 hours Tuesday night, spending the majority of that time discussing the comprehensive plan. During that time, council member Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin proposed many amendments, stating more work was needed despite how late in the process the council was discussing it.
The comprehensive plan the city approved is a 10-year update to the 20-year plan, which is required under the state Growth Management Act, Natural Resources Grant Administrator Courtney Bornsworth told the council.
“The 2025 update incorporates extensive public input, technical review and state-level policy requirements,” she said. “It provides direction for housing, transportation, economic development, land use, environmental resilience, sense of place, social fabric and neighborhood assets.”
To get the plan, officially called the Vision 2045 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update, staff worked for 18 months and included extensive public outreach.
When the council conducted the first reading of the ordinance to adopt the plan during its meeting Nov. 18, council directed staff to make two changes to the plan, Bornsworth said. The first was to go beyond implementing the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s best available science to include net gain of ecological functions and values of critical areas.
“The comprehensive plan includes goals and policies to protect critical areas based on best available science,” Bornsworth said. “These policies have been defined to ensure continued alignment with WDFW guidance as it evolves. At this time, net ecological gain is not recognized as best available science or formerly adopted under the Growth Management Act.”
The staff’s approach to ecological goals allows the city to continue implementing a no net loss standard while supporting the pursuit of net ecological gain, according to Bornsworth’s presentation.
That was one area where Schromen-Wawrin and other council members took issue, stating that no net loss doesn’t work and that he found studies through WDFW which concluded net ecological gain was the best science.
“I would really love that we have net ecological gain in our guiding policy because it’s gonna guide our shoreline master plan, it’s gonna guide our critical areas, and if we don’t have it there, it’s not gonna be in those other documents,” council member LaTrisha Suggs said.
The second council request Nov. 18 was to strengthen policies acknowledging the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s sovereign status, treaty rights and co-management responsibilities. The council asked that the comprehensive plan commit to free prior and informed consent (FPIC) practices for land use and environmental planning affecting treaty-protected resources, according to Bornsworth’s presentation.
“The city recognizes the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe as a sovereign nation and remains committed to ongoing collaboration on land use planning,” Bornsworth said. “FPIC practices originate from the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. They are intended to ensure that tribes are informed, consulted and voluntarily agree to actions that may affect their land’s resources or rights before decisions are made. However, no jurisdictions in Washington state currently implement FPIC in local planning policies, and using FPIC may create unintended regulatory obligations or approval requirements not currently recognized under state law.”
The state Department of Commerce recommends using meaningful consultation emphasizing early communication, active listening, two-way dialogue and transparency.
Suggs took issue with that point, stating she was involved with the tribe when the Tse-Whit-Zen village was found and that “meaningful consultation” did not work.
Suggs attempted to amend the comprehensive plan to have the meaningful consultation language replaced with a plan for the city to work with the Klallam tribal governments to develop a formal governing policy that facilitates codification of the Port Angeles municipal code, protecting and recognizing tribal self governance and Klallam ability to protect treaty resources.
That motion failed, but a similar motion, unrelated to the plan, passed later in the evening.
In addition to the comprehensive plan, the council passed a citywide rezone for the comprehensive plan, the 2025 Housing Action Plan Periodic Update and amendments to several sections of chapter 17 of the municipal code addressing co-living housing.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
