Comprehensive Plan

Vancouver Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code

The Comprehensive Plan is one of our community’s most important tools to help plan for the future. Over the next 2½ years, community members and the City will work together to develop a plan that will guide Vancouver’s growth and development through 2045.

Since the plan was last updated in 2011, Vancouver has experienced significant growth, as well as demographic, economic and social changes. Planning for our shared future will require widespread engagement and conversations about how we realize a shared vision.

Updating the existing plan – Our Vancouver 2045

The City has recently started the process to update its comprehensive plan, in order to respond to shifting growth, demographic, economic and social trends that have emerged since 2011, the last time the plan was updated.

The comprehensive plan is a significant policy document that will help shape how the community looks and feels, and how it functions and operates over time. The plan will guide the City’s growth and development for the next 20 years, with a target year of 2045 for achieving the overall vision that is established. Washington’s Growth Management Act requires the City to adopt an updated plan and changes to its zoning code by June 30, 2025.

What exactly is being updated?

In order to meet requirements of the Growth Management Act, the City will need to do the following:

Guiding questions

The planning process will be guided by several big questions, including:

Housing

Land Use, Development and Infrastructure

Equity and Opportunity

Climate and Environment

How you can be a part of the process

The City intends for this work to be a co-creative and iterative process with community members, with an emphasis on elevating the perspectives of communities that have been historically underrepresented, excluded or negatively impacted from public decision-making processes. The comprehensive plan will take around 2 ½ years to prepare and adopt, and there will be a wide variety of opportunities and formats to inform policy, provide input and feedback, and weigh in on alternatives.

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2023 Annual Review: Request changes to the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Maps

Comprehensive plans may be amended as frequently as once per year under state law. Property owners may submit amendment proposals to the City, including site-specific Comprehensive Plan and zoning designation change requests, during this annual review period.

Pre-application conferences are required for proposed site-specific changes. Pre-application forms will be accepted through April 30, 2023. Formal applications will be accepted from June 1 to June 15. Proposed changes are then presented during public hearings before the Vancouver Planning Commission and City Council in the fall.

The City has temporarily suspended amendment requests from individual property owners to amend their comprehensive plan designation until the larger plan update process has concluded, by June 30, 2025.

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