The Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead, in partnership with Department of Commerce, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Puget Sound Partnership, and the Stormwater Strategic Initiative, has updated the Sound Choices Checklist for Comprehensive Plans.
The Sound Choices Checklist is a tool that aligns the Puget Sound recovery strategies and actions with the comprehensive plan elements. Puget Sound jurisdictions, and Puget Sound recovery partners, can use the checklist to consider if and how their comprehensive plans are setting the stage for Puget Sound recovery.
The original Sound Choices Checklist was developed for the last round of comprehensive plan updates, before the era of Implementation Strategies and long before the 2022-2026 Puget Sound Action Agenda. It was time for a refresh. An updated Sound Choices Checklist is a way to translate Action Agenda goals and Implementation Strategy priorities into an easy-to-use document ready for comprehensive plan updates.
How does Puget Sound Recovery and Comprehensive Planning relate?
Action Agenda Strategy 1 and the Land Development and Cover Implementation Strategy both refer to actions that improve Growth Management Act (GMA) implementation within local jurisdictions’ land use planning and decisions. The GMA requires most counties and cities to update their comprehensive plans every 10 years. The Puget Sound communities are all due to update their comprehensive plans between December 2024 and June 2025.
Several Action Agenda strategies and Implementation Strategies include actions and strategies that fall under the mandatory comprehensive plan elements and related topics. Puget Sound Recovery depends on land use decisions informed by the comprehensive plans.
Who is the checklist for and how can they use it?
The Sound Choices Checklist is a resource for cities, counties, and the Puget Sound recovery community with three purposes:
Encourage local jurisdictions to align their comprehensive plan updates with the Action Agenda and Implementation Strategies.
Help jurisdictions recognize how their decisions and planning policies are advancing Puget Sound recovery. It will enable these jurisdictions to add Puget Sound Recovery and Action Agenda strategies to the reason they are making those planning decisions.
Provide the Puget Sound Recovery Community with a resource to use when making comments on local comprehensive plan updates.
This checklist compiles existing best practices and Puget Sound recovery priorities for local planners to consider in comprehensive plan updates. The checklist is organized by the standard comprehensive plan chapters. It also includes topic areas that cities and counties might include as additional stand-alone chapters in their plan or incorporate within the standard chapters.
The checklist includes links to more detailed resources, such as the WDFW Riparian Management Zone checklist and Puget Sound Regional Council’s Guidance on Integrating Stormwater Solutions into Comprehensive Plans.
Because comprehensive planning is also important for the Stormwater SIL’s Implementation Strategies, the Stormwater SIL’s 2023 investment priorities include an upcoming funding opportunity to help jurisdictions implement the Sound Choices checklist. (See the investment description in the current and watch for a funding announcement coming up this fall.) In addition, we will be hosting a series of engagement workshops in the fall of 2023 to gather stakeholder input about how our investments can support integrating land use planning with water quality and Puget Sound recovery goals. Register here to stay informed about dates and opportunities to share your perspective through this process. The SILs are really excited about these projects and will be looking for other ways to support and involve local jurisdictions in elevating Puget Sound recovery priorities through comprehensive plans.
How was the checklist updated?
The Habitat SIL started the Sound Choices Checklist by reviewing relevant Action Agenda and Implementation Strategies. The priorities from the Action Agenda and Implementation Strategies built the backbone of the checklist. The Stormwater SIL provided a platform to collect feedback on the original checklist through their Land Use Pod, a group of land use and stormwater practitioners that meet periodically.
HSIL circulated drafts of the checklist to partners and other experts in the field, including staff at Departments of Commerce, Fish and Wildlife, and Natural Resources, the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Puget Sound Partnership, city and county staff, and recovery partners. HSIL incorporated feedback from each round of review into the checklist.
Did you know?
The Sound Choices Checklist compiles existing best practices and Puget Sound recovery priorities for local planners to consider in comprehensive plan updates.