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Subarea planning

Unincorporated areas of King County are governed by the King County Comprehensive Plan  and locally-specific subarea plans. Subarea plans are adopted as part of the Comprehensive Plan, but address smaller geographies within King County and establish policies specific to the needs of those communities. Subarea plans must be consistent with, and not redundant to, the Comprehensive Plan.

King County had a robust community planning program that occurred in two distinct periods: 1) from 1973 through 1984 to implement the 1964 Comprehensive Plan, and 2) from 1985 through 1994 to implement the 1984 Comprehensive Plan and then to implement the 1994 Comprehensive Plan for compliance with the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA). During this time, locally-specific “community plans” were developed and maintained for 12 large geographic areas of the County. With the adoption of the GMA in the early 1990s, community planning efforts were reoriented to countywide comprehensive planning. Some policies from the prior community plans were folded into the Comprehensive Plan, and the majority of the standalone community plans were rescinded.

In 2011 and 2012, King County adopted a new approach for engagement and service delivery in unincorporated areas. Seven Community Service Areas (CSAs) were established to guide the work. In 2015, building on this new framework, the County reinstated long-range planning for its unincorporated communities and launched a subarea planning program for 11 unincorporated communities located within the seven CSAs. In alignment with the schedule to adopt new subarea plans, all remaining standalone community plans have now been repealed.

Community Plan Archive

The following is an archive of previous community plans that are no longer in effect. This map compares the geographic boundaries used in the 1970s-1990s community planning with the geographic boundaries used for CSAs today.

Other Locally-Specific Plans

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