PublicHearing_StaffReport_2026_V3.0

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Re: Comments on the Kittitas County 2026 Comprehensive Plan update March 2, 2026 Page 13 • For uses that cannot be located in a different location, such as highway expansions, mitigate adverse impacts including in those areas with significant health disparities. • Equitably site beneficial uses such as trails, parks, and schools and prioritize new investments in underserved areas. • Equitably plan for capital facilities and invest in underserved or overburdened areas. • Protect the resources needed by all communities including areas experiencing environmental health disparities and by underserved areas such as surface and ground water quality and quantity. • Meaningful involve all affected people in these decisions and comprehensive plan updates. Adopt policies, programs, and regulations to address increased wildfire risk. See 10.7.5 Wildfire on page 171. Because of climate change and urban development in hazard -prone areas, insurance is becoming increasingly difficult to get for housing and development in these areas limiting the ability sell or use these developments.36 We need to direct growth away from these areas. We recommend a new policy to address this need and RCW 36.7oA.070(9)(e)(i)(C) to read as follows: XX Direct growth away from natural hazards created or aggravated by climate change, including landslides, flooding, areas likely experience a concentration of smoke, wildfire, and other localized effects of changes to temperature and precipitation patterns by not expanding urban growth areas into areas subject to these hazards, not increasing the intensity or density of uses in these areas; and not designating or zoning these areas for residential development or other types of urban growth. In addition, the wildfire policies are not specific as RCW 36.7oA.070(9)(e)(i) requires. For example, CR-P16 calls on the County to "[i]dentify and implement strategies for reducing wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface." But the time 36 Mona Hemmati, Ian P. Gray & Steven G.Bowen, The growing void in the U.S. homeowners insurance market: who should bear the rising cost of climate change? 4:35 NPJ CLIMATE ACTION P. 1 (2025) last accessed on March 2, 2026, at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-025-00231-8 and available at the link on the last page of this letter with the filename: "s44168-025-00231- 8.pdf." This online journal is peer -reviewed. Nature portfolio peer review webpage last accessed on Feb. g, 2026, at: https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/peer-review and at the link on the last page of this letter with the filename: "Peer Review _ Nature Portfolio. pdf. " L