The Enumclaw City Council passed its 20-year Comprehensive Plan last week, laying the foundation for how the local community is expected to grow — and how the municipal government should grow with it.

The Comprehensive Plan, which is not a binding document but a set of guidelines and recommendations, was due at the end of December 2024, but there were weather and scheduling issues over the holidays that delayed the process.

Although it sets nothing in stone, Washington state cities are required to update their Comprehensive Plans every ten years in order to be eligible for various county and state grants.

The document is, as indicated in the title, comprehensive, and covers topics like projected community growth, housing and transportation needs, natural environment and park usage, and more.

“The City of Enumclaw’s comprehensive plan contains the vision, goals, and policies for the future growth and development of the community derived from the desires and wishes of Enumclaw residents,” the plan reads, mentioning the numerous public meetings both held on individual topics and the plan as a whole over the last two years. “… The plan looks beyond the conventions of law, exceeding minimum legal requirements to get at what the people want.”

POPULATION AND COMMUNITY GROWTH

Population growth could be considered one of the most important factors as to why cities need to look into the far future to determine what the community will want and need, and how the city will meet those expectations.

According to state projections, the number of people calling Enumclaw home could grow by an estimated 2,000 residents by 2050, bringing the total from about 12,700 people inside city limits to 14,371, a 13% increase.

Population projections are based on past patterns; for the past decade, Enumclaw’s population has grown 1.6% each year, higher than the county’s average of 1.53% annually.

Included in that population increase are children and seniors — two demographics that Enumclaw has historically have a higher density of than the county as a whole, and could increase as more people move into the area.

According to the Comprehensive Plan, Enumclaw’s child-to-adult dependency ratio is nearly 36%, compared to the county’s 30%, meaning Enumclaw residents have more children than the average King County family.

It’s the same story for seniors, with Enumclaw’s senior dependency ratio coming in at 66.7% compared to King County’s 50.4%.

“Enumclaw has a significantly higher overall age dependency ratio than both King County and Washington State overall, with higher child and old-age dependency ratios. This means that City residents bear a greater burden in supporting age-dependent populations there,” the document reads. “It’s likely then, that Enumclaw needs more support and resources for children, households with children, older adults, and households with older adults than the county and state overall.”

The report also notes that 14% of total residents in Enumclaw are reported to have a disability (compared to the county’s 10%), which is another factor in determining community needs.

Economic status is a third factor. The Comprehensive Plan reports that 8% of locals fell under the poverty line in 2021, and 32% of residents are considered “cost burdened” if they spend more than 30% of household income spend on housing costs like mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc.

HOUSING

With more than a thousand people expected to move to Enumclaw in the next 15 years — and a few of those likely to be low-income — the city has to seriously consider how to provide enough affordable housing for them.

According to the Comprehensive Plan, the state requires all cities to take that population projection and turn it into housing units, and plan for how to provide housing for incoming residents.

Although cities have little to no say in how much growth they can plan for, the community does have a say in how Enumclaw should encourage housing development.

“Through community workshops and a housing survey it was determined that the community values its existing architectural character, and the housing element should preserve the scale of the city’s established neighborhoods. Housing that is affordable to for all walks of life is important to the community members,” the Comprehensive Plan reads. “To meet the City’s growth targets for households in all economic segments, the community was also in support of the housing policies that encouraging the construction of middle housing types (duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, cottages, and ADUs), however they preferred that those housing types to be distributed throughout the city and not concentrated in one area.”

Enumclaw’s housing target is to add a little more than 1,000 new units by 2024 — this includes single family homes but also the aforementioned middle housing and apartment complexes. This would bring the city’s total housing unit count to 6,380.

While the city is aiming to have more than half of those new units to be affordable for those who make up to or more than 120% of King County’s average household income ($115,700 in 2021), another 257 units would be focused on low-income and poverty-level people and families.

Roughly another 100 units would be focused on households making between 31% and 50 and between 51% and 80% of the average county household income.

However, while the city has the land for developers to use for this amount of housing (and even more), it is noted there are production barriers that could deter developers from constructing low- and medium-income focused units.

“To ensure that the city can provide housing choices for households in all economic segments, the City will need to have policies that encourage the development of housing units that would serve the households making less than [30% of the King County average household income],” the Comprehensive Plan reads, giving examples of subsidized housing and adjusting permit fees. “It is not possible for the city to encourage market rate housing that would be affordable to households making less than 30% the [average county household income] so the city should consider adopting policies that assist with reducing housing cost and encourage housing payment assistance.”

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

While Enumclaw certainly relies on property taxes for its general fund, general sales taxes account for even more of the city’s budget. This year, the city has budgeted nearly $4.4 million in revenue from sales taxes.

However, that’s an 8% decrease from the previous year. And while sales tax boomed in 2021, increases have been slight since then, signifying economic stagnation.

The question then is, what can Enumclaw do to increase economic activity, not just in and around the downtown corridor but also in industrial production?

There are two options available, according to the Comprehensive Plan: lean into the city’s economic strengths, or diversify to become more competitive with other nearby municipalities.

On the retail side, the city’s strengths lie in, perhaps unsurprisingly, lawn and garden equipment sales, but also auto parts, accessories, and tire retail sales and other motor vehicle dealers (non-car dealers), when measured by sales tax activity per capita and compared against King County.

And overall, the city does will in the industries of agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; and retail trade industries per capita.

The Comprehensive Plan gives no recommendation on which direction the city should pursue.