County kicks off community meetings on Comprehensive Plan Update
(Photo above: Commissioner Shon Smith opens a community meeting on May 20 in Leavenworth. People came to learn about the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update.)
Chelan County kicked off the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update with three open house events in May 2025. These events gave community members an opportunity to share their vision for the future of the County and to discuss their experiences and concerns around housing, land use, transportation, climate resilience and other Comprehensive Plan elements. Participants represented a wide range of interests and included members of the public, members of community organizations, elected officials, City and County staff, and consultants providing support for this effort. The events started at 5:30 p.m. and were advertised through a variety of means, including the County’s website, press release, flyer distribution, email notifications and social media.
The meetings were held in the following locations:
May 19: Chelan High School
May 20: Leavenworth Fire Hall (hosted by the City of Chelan)
May 21: Wenatchee Mission View Elementary.
Community Development staff led a presentation with project background information, including the basics of comprehensive planning in Washington state, project schedule and opportunities for providing feedback. After the presentation, about 15 minutes of questions and answers were held with the audience.
The meetings included a general open house format where attendees could review posters with information on the draft plan and speak with County of Chelan staff and consultants. The latter two meetings in Leavenworth and Wenatchee allowed attendees to visit tables on Comprehensive Plan topics. Attendees were invited to provide sticky notes on their posters with comments and fill out comment forms. In all cases, participants had the opportunity to speak with elected officials and County staff on a one-on-one basis.
Open House Feedback
The public provided informative feedback on a variety of topics during the events. The feedback will be reviewed and incorporated into the draft of the Chelan County Comprehensive Plan where practical, either through added or revised policies and updated maps, new graphics, or new sidebars with supplemental information. A summary of all comments received will be provided to the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners.
Note: This summary does not include feedback received on the Climate Element or the Transportation Element. This summary includes only limited feedback received on the Climate and Transportation Elements. A separate summary will be prepared by the County teams assigned to those topics.
Comment Forms
Forms were provided requesting feedback on priorities and concerns about housing, land use, and parks and open space. Responses from the comment forms include the following:
Support for more community gardens and agricultural outreach and education
Support for purchasing aging, old houses, converting them into duplexes, townhomes and making them available for rent.
Prohibit investment of hedge funds in purchasing housing stock.
Protect existing low-income housing, such as mobile home parks
Most appropriate locations for housing:
In existing towns and cities and along the 2/97 corridor, where transit and services exist.
In urban areas in proximity to the existing transit system to ensure access to basic services.
In appropriate zones
Within already developed areas
North Wenatchee alongside the river
Desirable housing types:
Mix of housing (e.g. duplexes, triplexes, accessory dwelling units [ADUs]) focused on energy-efficient spaces
Cottage development that offsets density with open space for natural or ag land.
Investigate inclusionary policies
All kinds listed to the extent they provide more affordable housing
Duplexes, triplexes, cottages
Support for a non-municipal Urban Growth Area (UGA) in Malaga: Yes (3) No (1)
Dot Exercise
The meetings in Chelan, Leavenworth and Wenatchee included a dot exercise board activity. Participants placed dots next to goals and policies about different elements of the Comprehensive Plan. Green dots signified “I like this!” and red dots signified “I have concerns.”
As noted in the images below, the area of greatest concern was the land use sections described as follows:
Provides vision for rural and urban development
Guidelines for density of development and land use types, including residential, commercial and industrial areas
Climate resilience
While concerns were raised about housing affordability, preservation of existing housing stock, development, capital facilities, utilities, and other elements, there was also optimism in these areas based on the number of green dots.
Flip Chart
The joint City and County meeting at Chelan High School allowed attendees to enter specific comments and opportunities for discussion with City and County staff and their consultants. The flip chart produced one comment:
“Can the Manson UGA be expanded eastward? Sewer, water and transportation are all available.”
Last Updated: 06/10/2025 12:37 PM
Archive Disclaimer
The information contained on this site is provided as a courtesy of the Chelan County. Where it exists, the "Index.txt" will contain a brief explanation of files contained in this folder
Chelan County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its web site. However, due to the possibility of transmission errors, HTML browser capabilities, changes made since the last update to the site, etc., neither Chelan County, nor any agency, officer or employee of Chelan County warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.
PLEASE NOTE: FTP browsing is no longer supported on the latest browsers, please refer below to acccess our FTP content.
Popular Browsers
Supported
Microsoft Edge
NO
Google Chrome
NO
Safari
NO
Internet Explorer 11
YES
Mozilla Firefox
YES
Opera
YES
By clicking continue, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to this disclaimer.
The information contained on this site is provided as a courtesy of the Chelan County. Where it exists, the "Index.txt" will contain a brief explanation of files contained in this folder
Chelan County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its web site. However, due to the possibility of transmission errors, HTML browser capabilities, changes made since the last update to the site, etc., neither Chelan County, nor any agency, officer or employee of Chelan County warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.
PLEASE NOTE: FTP browsing is no longer supported on the latest browsers, please refer below to acccess our FTP content.
Popular Browsers
Supported
Microsoft Edge
NO
Google Chrome
NO
Safari
NO
Internet Explorer 11
YES
Mozilla Firefox
YES
Opera
YES
By clicking continue, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to this disclaimer.
The information contained on this site is provided as a courtesy of the Chelan County. Where it exists, the "Index.txt" will contain a brief explanation of files contained in this folder
Chelan County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its web site. However, due to the possibility of transmission errors, HTML browser capabilities, changes made since the last update to the site, etc., neither Chelan County, nor any agency, officer or employee of Chelan County warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.
PLEASE NOTE: FTP browsing is no longer supported on the latest browsers, please refer below to acccess our FTP content.
Popular Browsers
Supported
Microsoft Edge
NO
Google Chrome
NO
Safari
NO
Internet Explorer 11
YES
Mozilla Firefox
YES
Opera
YES
By clicking continue, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to this disclaimer.
The information contained on this site is provided as a courtesy of the Chelan County. Where it exists, the "Index.txt" will contain a brief explanation of files contained in this folder
Chelan County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its web site. However, due to the possibility of transmission errors, HTML browser capabilities, changes made since the last update to the site, etc., neither Chelan County, nor any agency, officer or employee of Chelan County warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.
By clicking continue, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to this disclaimer.
The information contained on this site is provided as a courtesy of the Chelan County. Where it exists, the "Index.txt" will contain a brief explanation of files contained in this folder
Chelan County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its web site. However, due to the possibility of transmission errors, HTML browser capabilities, changes made since the last update to the site, etc., neither Chelan County, nor any agency, officer or employee of Chelan County warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.
By clicking continue, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to this disclaimer.