2025 Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive Plan tabling at Farmer's Market

Above: Public engagement on the Comprehensive Plan at the Port Townsend Farmer's Market, summer 2024

Access the 2025 Comprehensive Plan

Find all the background documentation from the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review on our project website pt2045planning.org.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?

Port Townsend uses a Comprehensive Plan, called a "Comp Plan" for short, to chart how we want the city to evolve over the next 20 years. The Comprehensive Plan goes under "Periodic Review" every 10 years and sets big goals and policies, like our land use zones. Development regulations, like height limits, and active plans, like the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan, are used to implement the goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan.

A Comprehensive Plan’s parts are called “elements” and can include:

A Community Direction Statement	Utilities and Capital Facilities Elements
Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Elements	Economic Development Element
Other information like the Rainier Street & Upper Sims Way Subarea Plan

What is a Periodic Review?

Washington State’s Growth Management Act (GMA) requires us to thoroughly review our Comp Plan every 10 years. The periodic review is an opportunity for us to collectively look at the big picture, see connectivity, and share ideas. It is when we actively compare our current plans and policies with new legislation, ensuring our community is up-to-date, and when we work closely with our community to ensure we all have a voice in planning the future of Port Townsend. The last time we updated the Comp Plan was in 2016. Interested in past planning efforts? Visit the City's laserfiche archive to view many planning documents from days of yore.

How was the community involved?

Thank you to everyone who shared their vision for 2045! Over the course of two years, the City held over 70 public engagement opportunities so that Port Townsend’s diverse residents and workers with diverse perspectives had access to providing input to the Comprehensive Plan. Opportunities included interviews, workshops, Planning Commission and City Council meetings, online outreach, and youth engagement through schools, to name a few. See below for a list of engagement events, or visit our project website pt2045planning.org/get-involved to read the Public Participation Plan and view public input gathered at the events.

How was the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review funded?

Port Townsend was awarded over $725,000 in state grants for City long range planning. These funds were used for the 2025 Comprehensive Plan, Active Transportation Plan, Climate Action Plan, Shoreline Master Program, and our first Urban Forestry Plan. The City will continue to engage the community in implementing these plans through 2026 and beyond.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW IN 2024 - 2025

City Council, Planning Commissioners, and City Staff participated in the T-Lab Moving in the Right Direction Conference, on April 19, 2024.
City Staff tabled the Jefferson County Connectivity Fair in Chimacum, WA, on April 20, 2024.
A Vision Workshop and Kick-off Event was held at the American Legion and Cotton Building, May 6, 2024.
July 20, August 17, and September 21 City Council, Planning Commissioners, and City Staff tabled three farmer's market Saturdays to gather community input from market shoppers.
Pop-Up Engagement events have been held at the Mountain View Commons Food Bank, The Nest, a youth-centered coffee shop, and the Port of Port Townsend's Boat Haven for Marine Trades conversations.
Three days of Planning Studios were held July 22 to 24, 2024 at the Cotton Building on long-term goals for Port Townsend, and how we want to reach the future.
On September 18, 2024, A People, Planet, and Prosperity Tour was held along the streetscape of three housing developments in Port Townsend with a quorum of Council and Planning Commission present.
An interactive Scenarios Workshop was held virtually with the community on October 23, 2024, resulting in key input on housing density alternatives for zoning nodes across the city.
City Staff have been facilitating a series of discussions on planning with 4th grade classes at Salish Coast Elementary and Port Townsend High School English students.
The Active Transportation Plan Open House for Walking, Biking, and Connected Communities was held on January 15, 2025 at the Port Townsend Community Center.
On February 20 and March 12, 2025 Staff and consultants hosted two Shoreline Master Program Open Houses in a Future of Our Shorelines series. The first was an overview of the Shoreline Master Program Update, and the second was a focused workshop on Sea Level Rise and the proposed Port and City Waterwalk.
On March 7, 8, and 9, 2025 City staff hosted a table inviting youth and community members to engage in topics around the Comprehensive Plan at the 2025 Connectivity Summit at Chimacum High School.
On March 26, 2025, an Open House and Workshop for the Comprehensive Plan was hosted by Planning Commission, City Council, staff and consultants, at Salish Coast Elementary. The workshop included Active Transportation engagement, policy options for housing and arts, Parks Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan engagement, and an opportunity for the public to weigh in on priorities for implementation.
In August, September, and October 2025, City staff and City Council are tabling the PT Farmers Market to connect with marketgoers about various elements in the Comprehensive Plan, including the Sustainable Streets Plan, PROS Plan, and Housing.
On September 22, 2025, an open house, Planning for Our Future: Streets, Walking, Biking, Parks, and Open Space, was held at the PT Senior Center / Community Center in Uptown Port Townsend. Information related to the Sustainable Streets Plan, Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan, and the Active Transportation Plan was be available to review, comment, and connect with staff and council about these subjects.
A series of joint Planning Commission and City Council Workshops give both bodies time to meet about the Comprehensive Plan docket and discuss priorities for policy drafting and implementation goals.