For the first time since 1992, officials with Clallam County and the cities of Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks meet to update the County-Wide Planning Policy.

The policy, says Steve Gray, deputy director and planning manager for Clallam County’s Department of Community Development, creates a framework between the county and the different cities’ comprehensive plans to promote consistency according to the Growth Management Act.

A steering committee made up of members of each entity will tentatively provide recommendations to county commissioners for each city by Sept. 30, Gray said.

The steering committee first meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, in the commissioners meeting room in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles. More meeting dates will be set from this meeting.

The City of Sequim’s representatives include Chris Hugo, director of community development, and city councilors Candace Pratt and Deputy Mayor Ted Miller.

Officials will cover their area’s interests and discuss options for reviewing and updating the planning policy.

Hugo has pushed for an update to the county’s planning policy for a few years, he’s said in previous interviews.

Part of that push, as guided in the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan from Oct. 26, 2015, is for more urban development closer to the city’s downtown core rather than in county lands.

Sequim City Manager Charlie Bush said the City of Sequim has many interests in the planning sessions and one of their main points is seeking more consistency with development in rural areas.

“We want to preserve rural farmlands,” he said.

Clallam County commissioners adopted its last County-wide Planning Policy on June 30, 1992, and Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim’s city councils did the same.

An update was required by the 1990 Washington State Growth Management Act to address urban growth area planning, public capital facilities, affordable housing, economic development and more, Gray said.

“The update of the 25-year old county-wide planning policies is intended to ensure they remain both consistent with the GMA and responsive to local needs,” Gray said.

“It also creates an opportunity to reconvene a broader county and city discussion of growth and related issues, like infrastructure needs, to identify areas of mutual interest to inform continued or future intergovernmental coordination.”

For more information on the 1992 County-Wide Planning Policy, call Steve Gray at 417-2520.