Community Service Area Subarea Plans

A Community Service Area (CSA) Subarea Plan is a detailed local land use plan that implements, is consistent with and is an element of the King County Comprehensive Plan. These plans contain specific policies, guidelines and criteria to guide development and capital improvement decisions within specific subareas of King County. Each one of King County’s seven CSAs has or is scheduled to have its own CSA Subarea Plan. While there are differences among the CSAs in terms of their boundaries, range of land uses, annexation issues, and more, using this accepted geography will ensure the entire county receives some level of planning on a regular cycle.  This planning will include a regular assessment of the CSA’s goals, population changes, new development, employment targets and similar demographic and socioeconomic indicators.  These assessments will be adopted as CSA Subarea Plans.  These plans are meant to implement the King County Comprehensive Plan and be consistent with the County's Comprehensive Plan's policies, development regulations, and Land Use Map.  To address the unique issues in each geography, CSA Subarea Plans may also have more refined, cross-discipline, and localized focuses on rural town centers, urban neighborhoods, or corridor approaches. 

Each CSA Subarea Plan will be highly localized with a strong commitment by King County to not use an “off-the-shelf” approach in their creation. That being said, some core topics will appear in every plan:

• Demographics

• Vision for CSA

• GMA-mandated elements

• Fiscal/CIP linkage to KC department budgets

• Public participation process

• Implementation strategy

Opportunities to get involved in the CSA Subarea Plan for your area of King County will primarily occur during the calendar year in which the CSA Subarea Plan is scheduled. So, the first step is to check the Future CSA Subarea Planning Timeline and look for the CSA in which you reside. In the designated year of your CSA Subarea Plan, there will be multiple opportunities to contribute both your time and ideas about the long-range plan and vision.

Broad-scale, timely, and consistent public engagement is essential to the development of CSA Subarea Plans. Below are some of the guiding principles for how public engagement will be structured and implemented throughout each annual plan cycle:

    •    King County will employ both “high tech and high touch” outreach strategies

    •   The type, frequency and mode of participation will be targeted to local community needs, demographics, etc.

    •    Diversity and equity/social justice principles will be integrated into each public outreach strategy, including:

•              Identification of minority populations and languages within subarea boundary
•              Translation of plan materials, where appropriate
•              Creation/use of small groups to elicit more meaningful policies around poverty, discrimination, race, etc.

• Each CSA Subarea Plan process will include at least two public forums which will be semi-formal, interactive and accessible. All plans will have a launch or kick-off meeting where issues and topics are proposed and the general scope of work is outlined. Subsequent forums will provide accountability and local verification for the content of the draft plan.

• Each plan will include at least one written public survey and comment tool.

• A “piggy-back” and cooperative public outreach approach will be used whenever there are concurrent planning activities by other local, state or federal agencies in the same area.

• Digital and social media tools will also be used for public outreach. These tools will vary depending on the type and level of public input required.

King County had a robust community planning program that occurred in two distinct periods—1973 through 1984, and 1985 through 1994. (See Chapter 11 of the King County Comprehensive Plan for more discussion of these periods.) Since then, there have only been minor plan updates to community plans. The term “community plan” was used to identify the 12 geographic areas that had detailed plans created between 1973 and 1994 (e.g. Bear Creek, Tahoma Raven Heights, Soos Creek).  Three of those plans remain active today – the West Hill Community Plan, the White Center Community Action Plan, and the Fall City Subarea Plan. Many other plans contain valuable policies and historical information, but the term “community plan” is no longer being used as a title or descriptor for geographic subareas of King County. (Full listing of CSA Subarea plans.)

These prior plans were created during a period when the unincorporated areas of King County absorbed a much higher percentage of population growth than under post-Growth Management Act King County. The CSA Subarea plans will play a much different role now that the urban growth areas of King County have reached a point of relative stability. The table below illustrates how the CSA geography aligns with the former Community Planning Area geography:

An archive of the last version of the prior community plans is available here.

2018   Skyway-West Hill Potential Annexation Area

2019   North Highline Potential Annexation Area

2020   Snoqualmie Valley/NE King CSA

2021   (No subarea plan; focus on Eight-Year Comprehensive Plan Update)

2022   Greater Maple Valley / Cedar CSA

2023   Fairwood Potential Annexation Area

2024   Bear Creek/Sammamish CSA

2025   Southeast King County CSA

2026   Four Creeks/Tiger Mountain CSA

2027   East Renton Potential Annexation Area

2028   Federal Way Potential Annexation Area