Comprehensive Plan: Climate Change and Equity Evaluation Gap Analysis for Edmonds, WA

ECONorthwest led a consultant team including Geos Institute and Broadview Planning to assist the City of Edmonds by evaluating its Comprehensive Plan to identify gaps in how the Plan could better address equity and climate concerns. The overarching rationale for this work was to assist the City in improving its long-range planning by analyzing the City’s current Comprehensive Plan and climate action planning. The team highlighted strengths, identified gaps, and provided recommendations for key priority actions that they could make as a part of their Comprehensive Plan update. The team reviewed their plan in comparison with climate action planning and equity planning best practices and principles, particularly those recognized in regional plans and policy guides. The team provided recommendations regarding the City’s Comprehensive Plan goals, policies, planning processes, and performance metrics. We worked with the City to develop the framework for the Equity evaluation. Since climate change impacts all systems across a community, the summary included suggestions for how to integrate climate adaptation considerations into other community planning processes as well. In the end, the City gained vetted recommendations for updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan to advance equity and equitable climate action planning.