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1. What is a Comprehensive Plan?

A Comprehensive Plan is a twenty-year community vision for growth and development. Ellensburg’s Comprehensive Plan was adopted October 2008, the plan identifies the density, type, and intensity of land uses throughout the City, as well as the character and capacity of public facilities and services like streets and utilities.

The Comprehensive Plan serves as the basis for the City's adoption of development regulations such as zoning and subdivision standards. The Appendix provides the most current capital improvement programs.

2. What is the annual Comprehensive Plan amendment process?

The Growth Management Act allows for comprehensive plan amendments only one time per year and City Council has established a process for that yearly amendment review. Amendments may be proposed by any member of the public; including any member of a City Board or Commission, any member of City Council, or City staff. Proposals must be submitted prior to July 1 of the current year for possible consideration during that year’s review process.

Council reviews all proposed amendments at the first regular meeting in July and dockets those proposals deemed ready for consideration. The docketed proposals are then forwarded to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation and City Council will then hold a public hearing and take final action beginning in October. Visit the Long Range Community Planning website for more information.

3. What is annexation and how does it work?

Another aspect of the comprehensive plan is annexation of Ellensburg’s Urban Growth Area (UGA) into the city limits. One of the goals of growth management is planned growth and to establish a process for incorporation of the City’s UGA into city limits.

Through annexation, the City of Ellensburg pursues the long-term financial health of the City by expanding the City’s existing tax base, while providing additional land for future residential, commercial and industrial development that allows the City of Ellensburg to focus infrastructure and resources on areas that can be annexed successfully and cooperatively. Proposed Annexation properties must be located in an adopted Urban Growth Area (UGA), must be contiguous to the City of Ellensburg, and must be designated in the City’s Comprehensive Plan as a potential annexation area.

Annexation Methods
Cities in the State of Washington are given a number of tools to annex unincorporated areas. A brief description of possible annexation methods is outlined in Planning Bulletin PB-35. For a more detailed description of all annexation methods please refer to the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington’s Annexation Handbook.
Of the available annexation methods, the City of Ellensburg has most often used the Direct Petition method. The direct petition method of annexation requires that a minimum of 10% of the property owners (calculated by assessed value) sign petitions to initiate the annexation process. Upon successful initiation the requested annexation is forwarded to the City Council for an official initiation action. Once successfully initiated by the City Council, a minimum of 60% of the property owners within the annexation area (calculated by assessed value) must sign the petition, PF-02 Petition For Annexation Form.

4. What is an Urban Growth Area?

Urban growth areas are areas around incorporated cities and towns within which urban growth shall be encouraged and outside of which growth can occur only if it is not urban in nature.

Urban growth areas are to include enough land to accommodate the twenty-year population growth projected for the City or Town. The Growth Management Act limits the land that a city may annex to land within its urban growth area.

5. What is the Growth Management Act?

The Growth Management Act was adopted into law by the Washington State Legislature in 1990 to address ways to accommodate growth. It requires the fastest-growing cities and counties complete comprehensive plans and development regulations to guide future growth. All jurisdictions are required to protect critical environmental areas and conserve natural resource lands, such as farms and forests. The GMA calls for communities to review and, if necessary, revise their plans and regulations every eight years to ensure they remain up-to-date.