Growth Targets Under Development

King County is now working with cities, towns and annexation areas to plan for growth within the county and to update the Countywide Planning Policies (CPPs). As a part of this process, the County is using the regional growth strategy identified as a part of VISION 2050 to allocate growth to each regional geography, including metropolitan and core cities, high capacity transit communities, cities and towns, urban unincorporated areas and rural areas. The jurisdictions in each of these regional geographies are caucusing to allocate this growth amongst the individual jurisdictions. Housing and employment targets will be identified for each jurisdiction and the jurisdictions will then need to update local policies and regulations to provide sufficient capacity to accommodate this growth. This is accomplished through the required update to each jurisdiction's Comprehensive Plan, which is due to be completed by June 2024, as well as subsequent updates to local regulations to implement Comprehensive Plan policies.

Mercer Island is considered a high capacity transit (HCT) community and is caucusing with the other HCT jurisdictions to establish draft targets for housing and employment growth. These targets will be incorporated into King County's CPPs and will be approved by the Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC), adopted by the King County Council and later ratified by each jurisdiction. Approval of the CPPs by the GMPC is planned in June 2021. The City plans to begin the Comprehensive Plan update process in the Summer of 2022. An 18-24-month process is anticipated, including significant public outreach and engagement.