Spokane: PlanSpokane 2046
The City of Spokane’s PlanSpokane 2046 update to its Comprehensive Plan, driven by Washington State’s Growth Management Act and climate requirements, is not merely a compliance exercise but a fundamental reorientation of policy that will profoundly influence future development and growth through 2046. The Community Climate Policy Survey (July-August 2025), which successfully gathered input from 1,419 community members, clearly identified policy priorities that will reshape Spokane’s urban form and its interaction with natural resources.
At the core of these findings, Water was ranked as the most important climate topic. This priority signals that future regulations and incentives must focus intensely on conservation, requiring developers and property owners to decrease use across municipal, household, commercial, and industrial sectors. New development will likely face mandates for water-wise landscaping, including requirements for native and drought-tolerant plantings, restricting the current norm of water-intensive turf. The highest-rated draft policy concerned the tree canopy (4.0/5.0 rating), which is a clear mandate to implement programs that increase tree canopy cover, especially in vulnerable communities. This will translate into stricter requirements for preserving existing mature trees, planting new ones, and limiting impervious surfaces, which collectively tackle the urban heat island effect and improve air quality.
The survey also revealed a community consensus on the direction of growth itself. A critical recurring theme was the need to limit sprawl and focus on infill development, alongside strong support for affordable, climate-friendly housing projects. These priorities point to future land use policies that will favor compact, sustainable, and mixed-use development within existing city limits over expansion into surrounding natural and agricultural lands. This infill strategy is supported by the fact that Public investment and infrastructure was the most strongly supported policy type, indicating community backing for major capital projects to upgrade infrastructure for Active Transportation (e.g., better crosswalks and EV charging expansion) within established neighborhoods, rather than building new systems at the fringe. The focus on retrofitting extends to existing buildings, with respondents calling for deconstruction of all building demolitions and requirements to retrofit historic and other existing buildings for climate resilience, shifting the development focus from sheer quantity to sustainable quality.
While the Reduction of environmental harm was collectively ranked as the most important factor in policy prioritization, cost considerations received the most first-place votes, meaning that the financial feasibility of new regulations and incentives will be a key determinant in their adoption. Furthermore, the strong emphasis on Equal Access dictates that any new benefits must be structured to apply broadly, specifically including renters and residents in higher intensity residential development, not just single-family property owners, to ensure that climate resilience is an equitable outcome across all of Spokane's diverse communities. These integrated priorities—from water conservation and green infrastructure to equitable, compact growth—will be the foundation of Spokane’s policy for the next two decades, profoundly shaping its built environment.