Without any information for the public to consider in advance, the Richland City Council will spend 45 minutes discussing “an attainable housing strategy” at their Tuesday night meeting. Some clues appear in the capital improvement project budget discussion that follows.
Richland covers 35 square miles, a bigger area than either Pasco or Kennewick. Land available for development include the City View property west of Duportail Road above the Yakima River, the tracts of land on the Columbia River near the Riverfront Inn, and the developable land near the new Costco, to name a few.
The city included details in their agenda packet, City Council Workshop Meeting • City of Richland – Agendas and Minutes • CivicClerk, about the Capital Improvement Projects which include infrastructure for possible future development.
Richland City Council meets Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at city hall at 6:00 p.m. Richland City View streams the meetings and Channel 192 broadcasts the meetings live.
Do we have a planning commission? Is there a plan for whether, what kind, when, and where future development may occur?
Or do we just look at proposals from for-profit companies on a proposition by proposition basis?
No master plan with citizen input?
Hi Jan, I appreciate your comment. Yes, Richland has a strategic plan. As someone who has attended almost every city council meeting for the last 6 years, I can tell you that the planning isn’t easy to follow. It does go through the planning committee and perhaps the economic development committee. Currently those committees are largely composed of “friends and family” of the city councilmembers. Developers can apply for changes in the strategic plan and the only time I saw an application fail was the change from commercial to residential at the development on Steptoe south of Meadow Springs. Councilmember Marianne Boring convinced the council that neighborhood retail was needed in that location. Boring lost the next election to Theresa Richardson, the applicant re-applied and he received his zoning change. Richardson said the developer had been a good city partner. Thank you for reading the Observer.