• The comprehensive plan is a significant policy document that plays a major role in guiding growth and development, influences how the community looks and feels, and how it functions and operates over time. Washington’s Growth Management Act requires the City to adopt an updated plan and modify its zoning code and development standards necessary to implement the plan no later than June 30, 2025.
• Designing an equity forward co-creative process with members of the community, particularly disproportionately impacted community members, will require a clear, concise, and transparent process to ensure there is shared understanding about how policy decisions will be made.
• The Our Vancouver project to update the City’s Comprehensive Plan has developed frameworks for Equity, Community Partnership and project Goals that align with and reflect the project charter previously endorsed by Council, and have been co-created with community partners.

Vibrant and Distinct Neighborhoods – a variety of accessible places and spaces.

Economic Opportunity - a place where a wide variety of businesses of all sizes grow and thrive.

Housing and Human Needs – meeting basic needs and partnering with organizations to support the community.

Climate and Natural Systems – Environmental stewardship and efforts to address climate change to ensure a sustainable future.

The City of Vancouver’s comprehensive plan provides the overall long-term vision and policy direction for managing the built and natural environment in Vancouver and providing necessary public facilities to achieve that vision. The City adopted its first comprehensive plan under Washington’s Growth Management Act in 1994 (Chapter 36.70A RCW), with a major re-write occurring in 2004, and a less substantive update occurring most recently in 2011.

On February 27, City Council endorsed a project charter for the Comprehensive Plan process, which identified three initial frameworks that would outline how we do the work and what our long-term desired outcomes are, to be finalized during the initial phase of the project:

• Equity Framework – Establishes a structure for ensuring disproportionately impacted and historically marginalized communities drive the policy design process.
• Community Partnership Framework – Provides details on how we inform, consult, involve, collaborate, and empower co-creative partners and community members during the plan development process. This also outlines overall community engagement goals and objectives, and provides details on the who, what, where and why of engagement.
• Goals Framework – provides an overall framework and structure for goals within the plan, including the outline of plan chapters and key themes for each chapter that reflect existing policy guidance and Council universal policy priorities.

Equity Framework

The equity framework formally identifies a definition of equity for the plan effort, identifies a set of equity principles, and establishes three initial priority equity outcomes for the plan effort:

1. As Vancouver grows, anyone who wants to can afford to live in the city in safe, stable housing.
2. Public transportation is a viable alternative to owning a personal vehicle and offers connectivity across destinations in Vancouver.
3. Create reparative policies that account for the ongoing harm caused by past racist policies, including those related to land use, housing, and the criminal legal system.

The framework at its core establishes a process for evaluating proposed policies and decision making processes during the planning effort, as well as future implementation of the plan.

Community Partnership Framework

The community partnership framework provides an overview of the co-creative process outlined in the public involvement plan, highlights the key advisory groups engaged in the project, the public involvement goals, and the tools that will be used throughout the project to engage community members. It also describes how input will be tracked and inform the overall process.

Since the kickoff of the plan update in May of 2023, in partnership with the project’s Equity team, draft versions of the three frameworks have been developed, and reviewed by City Council during workshops in June, July and October, as well as being reviewed in detail with Planning Commission in November.

In addition to Council and the Planning Commission, the project Community Partners, which are the core committee of City residents who are tasked with co-creating policy with the City, held their first meeting in June. Over the course of eight meetings, the Community Partners have helped develop the overall goals framework, provided input and helped develop the community partnership framework, and established the equity priority outcomes in the equity framework.

Goals Framework

The Our Vancouver Goals Framework was developed in alignment with the project vision statement, feedback received during the community visioning process, and input from the community partners. In addition, it reflects existing adopted policy directives, including the Climate Action Framework, 2023-2029 Strategic Plan, the Transportation System Plan, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Comprehensive Plan and the Urban Forestry Management Plan. The goals framework outlines twelve individual chapters for the Comprehensive Plan, and associated themes from which more specific goals, policies and implementation measures will be developed during subsequent phases of the plan effort.

The proposed Equity, Community Partnership and Goals frameworks provide clear direction on the process for updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan, and the broad goals we are seeking to achieve, in alignment with the project charter.