Renton is updating its Comprehensive Plan to manage housing, economic, transit and climate goals as the city continues to grow. The city is looking for feedback from the community to help shape a vision for the future.

The city’s comprehensive plan, last updated in 2018, lays out a roadmap and a series of goals to help shape policy and regulations for a growing Renton over the next 10 years.

Renton’s comprehensive plan is made to be in accordance with the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA). The state adopted the Growth Management Act in 1990. This legislation requires comprehensive plans to include specific elements in cities and county planning to address issues of a regional nature.

Some of the plan’s current guiding policies for land use by the city include:

• Sustaining “minimum employment levels of 50 employees per-gross-acre and residential levels of 15 households per-gross-acre within Renton’s Growth Center.”

• Supporting “compact urban development to improve health outcomes, support transit use, maximize land use efficiency, and maximize public investment in infrastructure and services.”

• Encouraging “infill development of single-family units as a means to meet growth targets and provide new housing.”

• Considering “surplus public property for other public uses before changing ownership.”

• Using “public process when siting essential public facilities.”

Some of the plan’s current goals for environmental resources in Renton include:

• Minimizing “adverse impacts to natural systems, and address impacts of past practice where feasible, through leadership, policy, regulation, and regional coordination.”

• Supporting “commercial and hobby agricultural uses such as small farms, hobby farms, horticulture, beekeeping, kennels, stables, and produce stands that are compatible with urban development.”

• Creating “a functioning and exemplary urban forest that is managed at optimum levels for canopy, health, and diversity.”

• Protecting, preserving and enhancing “the quality and functions of the City’s sensitive areas including: lakes, rivers, major and minor creeks, intermittent stream courses and their floodplains, wetlands, ground water resources, wildlife habitats, and areas of seismic and geological hazards.”

• Protecting “the natural functions of 100 year floodplains and floodways to prevent threats to life, property, and public safety associated with flooding hazards.”

• Protecting “clean air and the climate for present and future generations through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the individual, household, and community levels, and promote efficient and effective solutions for transportation and development.”

• Reducing “the number of trips made via single occupant vehicle.”

• Developing “a connected network of transportation facilities where public streets are planned, designed, constructed, and maintained for safe convenient travel of all users – motor vehicle drivers as well as, pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.”

• Implementing “a multimodal level of service that maximizes mobility, is coordinated with level of service standards of adjacent jurisdictions, and meets concurrency requirements.”

• Developing “a transportation system that preserves and protects natural resources and complies with regional, state, and federal air and water quality standards.”

• Supporting “electric vehicle infrastructure in all areas except those zoned for resource use or those areas designated as critical areas.”

Questions and comments can be emailed to PlanUpdate@rentonwa.gov.

For more information about the City of Renton’s Comprehensive Plan, or to submit feedback via the city’s survey, visit this link.