2025 Excellence in Planning Award Winners

By: Anya Gedrath, AICP

The 2025 Excellence in Planning Awards were given out during the Planning Association of Washington (PAW) annual conference in Chelan on Wednesday, April 23^rd, during the first evening’s welcome reception. There were six winners, with two ties, in four categories.

In all, there are seven (7) potential award categories:

Students
Implementation
Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations – Large Cities and Counties (city pop. > 40,000, county pop. > 60,000)
Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations – Small Cities and Counties
Transportation Plans
Community Involvement; and
Sustainability.

However, there are not winners in every category, every year. In addition, sometimes an applicant submits in one category, but the awards jury determines that that entry is a better fit in another category.

This year, although the awards deadline came just six (6) months after the last awards were issued at the APA-WA Conference in Bellevue, there were fourteen (14) submittals in various categories. Consequently, the planning jury chose the six winners in the following four (4) categories:

Community Involvement
Implementation
Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations—Large Cities and Counties
Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations—Small Cities and Counties.

The winner in the Community Involvement category was the City of Tacoma, for the City of Tacoma Neighborhood Planning Program, Planning and Development Services. As the applicants noted, The Neighborhood Planning Program (NPP) was created to support strong, vibrant, and diverse neighborhoods. The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan (STNP), an implementation strategy of the One Tacoma Comprehensive Plan, is a guide for the future of the South Tacoma Mixed-Use Center and surrounding neighborhood. It is the third neighborhood to develop a formal plan under the City of Tacoma’s Neighborhood Planning Program. To create this Plan, South Tacoma neighbors, businesses, and local organizations worked in partnership with the Neighborhood Planning Program to identify assets, address challenges, and enhance the neighborhood, as well as support direct implementation of these changes. The implementation phase has begun with scoping for “quick win” projects, which will continue through the next few years.

The winner in the Implementation category was a tie, between the City of Kent, for the City of Kent Community-based Behavioral Health Facilities Code Update and the City of Port Angeles, for Pursuing Housing for All. As the applicants from Kent stated, The City of Kent undertook an ambitious effort to remove barriers to the siting of behavioral health facilities while ensuring compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods. By updating Kent City Code, this project provides a clear, predictable permitting process for much-needed services, reducing the bureaucratic hurdles that have long delayed or deterred the establishment of essential public health infrastructure.

The other Implementation winner, the City of Port Angeles, noted, After the Building Residential Capacity Code Changes were adopted by the City Council on December 21, 2021, the Planning Commission agreed through motion to continue its review of the Title 17 Zoning Code. Staff seized the opportunity and began researching options to improve the timing of the zoning ordinance amendment process in order to address housing availability within the City as quickly as possible. Through the Pursuing Housing for All platform, the City has lowered barriers to housing production, built residential capacity, promoted flexibility, and made development easier for everyone. The Pursuing Housing for All municipal code amendment was a grassroots effort between the City Council, Planning Commission, city staff, the non-profit and for-profit development community that collaborated to promote diverse and accessible housing options in Port Angeles.

The award in the Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations, Large Cities & Counties category was a tie, also, between Snohomish County for the Snohomish County 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update and the City of Spokane, for the South Logan Transit Oriented Development Project. Snohomish County stated that their Comp Plan Update exemplifies the highest standards of planning principles and practices. The plan was thoughtfully designed to address the county's long-term vision for land use and growth management in unincorporated areas, consistent with the Growth Management Act (GMA). It incorporates a balanced approach to growth, focusing on a multimodal transportation system, high-capacity transit communities, infill development, and strategic urban growth area (UGA) adjustments. The plan's comprehensive nature ensures that it meets the diverse needs of the community while promoting sustainable development and environmental stewardship. This included the early adoption of a Climate Change and Resiliency Element and a Tribal Coordination Element.

The other winner in the Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations, Large Cities & Counties category, the City of Spokane, stated in their submittal that, the South Logan Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Project supported more connectivity and livability in a commercial and residential hub near multiple universities and in close proximity to downtown. Though the City of Spokane had explored transit supportive development for nearly a decade, from the Central City Line Economic and Land Use Impacts Study (2014) to the TOD Framework Study (2022), the South Logan TOD project was the first implementation of such efforts. Leveraging the investment of the City Line, Spokane’s first bus rapid transit line, the plan and immediate implementation focused on developing a community vision to establish policies that encourage mixed-use, walkable places close to transit.

Finally, the winner in the Comprehensive Planning/Development Regulations – Small Cities & Counties category was the City of SeaTac, for Envision SeaTac 2044. As the applicants noted, The Envision SeaTac 2044 project represents two years of technical analyses and community input to create a community vision for how SeaTac should grow and invest in itself over the next twenty years. This project also served as the City’s 2024 GMA-required periodic review of our Comprehensive Plan and alignment with PSRC Vision 2050 and King County Countywide Planning Policies. The focus of the work was to increase equitable access to opportunity for SeaTac’s communities by resetting SeaTac’s twenty-year growth and development policies and regulations. The project’s main outcome was to increase equitable access to opportunity by: 1) Focusing growth in Centers that provide jobs, housing, services, and amenities including: Urban Villages, Neighborhood Villages, Corner Stores, and Flex Warehouse/Industrial Areas and 2) Creating Complete Neighborhoods that support new growth with infrastructure and services and promote a high quality of life for residents and an attractive economic environment for businesses.

The 2026 Excellence in Planning Awards will be given out at the American Planning Association, Washington Chapter (APA-WA) Annual Conference in October 2026, eighteen (18) months after these 2025 awards. Details will be out next year on submittal instructions and deadlines, from APA-WA Co-Chairperson Anya L. Gedrath, AICP.

Congratulations to all of the above award recipients – your excellent work is an inspiration to all of us!