Comprehensive Plan

What is the Comprehensive Plan?

Tukwila’s Comprehensive Plan is a long-term guiding document or “blueprint” that explains the community’s values and priorities to guide growth and development. The process to develop the Comprehensive Plan encourages us to think about where we want to be in 20 years and how we’ll get there.  Tukwila’s Comprehensive Plan anticipates change and provides specific guidance for future legislative and administrative actions. The Plan reflects community involvement, technical analysis, state and regional requirements, and the judgment of decision-makers.

Tukwila’s Comprehensive Plan is updated regularly to stay current with community conditions and regional requirements, but its basic values remain constant.  They are to provide:

• Great neighborhoods
• A vibrant and diverse Tukwila International Boulevard District
• Good jobs along East Marginal Way
• A thriving Southcenter/Urban Center for shopping, working, living and playing

Tukwila’s Comprehensive Plan is a flexible framework that adapts to changing conditions over time. The Plan’s building blocks include chapters on housing and neighborhoods, transportation, economic development, capital facilities, utilities, the natural environment, and land uses through out the City and its subareas (i.e., Tukwila South, the Tukwila International Boulevard area, the Southcenter Urban Center and Manufacturing/Industrial Center).

Keeping the Plan Current

2024-2044 Periodic Update 

Click here for more information about the 2024-2044 Comprehensive Plan Update!!

Annual Review and Update

State law requires a periodic review of Comprehensive Plans and development regulations. The periodic review is distinguished from the yearly amendment process that usually addresses smaller proposals for the Plan’s amendments.

In 2015, Tukwila completed a periodic review and update of the Comprehensive Plan to ensure that it met the statewide planning regulations, regional growth targets for housing and employment, and community priorities for that day.  Since that time, updates have been completed to several foundational documents for the Plan – the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan, the City’s Shoreline Master Program and Critical Areas Ordinance.

Amendments

Apart from the periodic update of the Plan, the Comprehensive Plan and Comprehensive Plan map may be changed or amended once each year, or more frequently, in the event of an emergency. Members of the public who wish to propose a change may apply by December 31 for consideration in the following year.  For information on amending the Comprehensive Plan, please reference Tukwila Municipal Code sections 18.80 and 18.84.