Affordable housing and climate resilience are the main topics tackled in Coupeville’s Comprehensive Plan update.

The town invites community members to an open house to provide input and ask questions about the upcoming amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, a document in which municipalities state their visions, goals and policies for the next 20 years.

The open house meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17 at the Coupeville Rec Hall. Between 1 and 6 p.m., community members can drop in and have one-on-one conversations with staff. At 6 p.m., people can watch a presentation of the project and participate in a Q&A session afterwards.

The plan’s potential policy amendments will be developed over the course of a year and a half and are due in December 2025. The changes will involve housing, land use, climate change and the environment, transportation, capital facilities, utilities, historic preservation and design, economic stability and recreation spaces, according to a press release.

Planning Director Joshua Engelbrecht said the plan’s last update was supposed to happen in 2016, but it was delayed and finalized in 2023. Since then, the state has made significant policy changes to the Growth Management Act. The new update will build on the latest changes, Engelbrecht said.

With the approval of House Bill 1181 in 2023, municipalities are now required to add a new climate element in the comprehensive plan. That mean Coupeville has to develop policies to build resilience to the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise and warmer temperatures.

The town also must ensure the safety and health of residents, the economy and the environment, advance environmental justice and develop transportation systems that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and per capita vehicle miles traveled.

The state also changed what Engelbrecht described as loose language, now putting more pressure on municipalities to take proactive measures to help bring down the cost of housing. Coupeville is required to create capacity for housing for people of all income levels, including extremely low income households, and to ensure there is capacity for its share of the countywide emergency housing beds.

In 2021, according to the Q&A page, the town counted 1,950 residents. According to the Washington State Office of Financial Management and new requirements to plan for affordable housing, the town is expected to welcome approximately 714 more people between 2020 and 2045. New development will support this growth while also preserving the town’s historic features.

Engelbrecht said the open house is an opportunity for residents to get updated on what the town is up to and to share ideas and values that will help guide the policy making process.

For more information, contact Joshua Engelbrecht at planner@townofcoupeville.org or google “Coupeville’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update.”