Addressing growth focus of Moses Lake comprehensive plan update

MOSES LAKE — Growth, and how Moses Lake manages it and adapts to it, is already a focus of attention by city officials. Moses Lake Mayor Dustin Swartz said a lot of things go into answering that challenge, the city’s comprehensive plan among them.  

An update to the comprehensive plan must be completed by 2027, and Moses Lake City Council members started the process Feb. 25 by approving a search for a consultant to lead that process. 

“The comprehensive plan is a document that can and should guide our decision-making process over a long period of time,” Swartz said. Within certain parameters, how it guides growth is up to city officials and the council. 

“The comprehensive plan, depending on how you write it, can do certain things for you,” Swartz said.  

It can explain why and how city officials want to encourage growth, and how they plan to make it work. 

“This is what we want to do, and why,” Swartz said.  

Moses Lake is getting a lot of attention. In a January presentation to the council, City Engineer Richard Law detailed a list of possible development projects in the city’s urban growth area. Some are more advanced than others, but all of them have been the subject of inquiries.  

“We have been in conversations with people over the last few years,’ Law said.  

The potential development sites are not in the city limits now, but are in the UGA, which is a state-mandated land use regulation for counties over a designated population threshold. It’s meant to designate areas that would be considered preferable for development.  

The city has received an annexation request for one project at Road L and Wheeler Road, Law said, which is adjacent to the city limits. If that project happens it would add an estimated 400 “residential units.”  

A lot of the interest, Law said, has come from Mae Valley, which makes up the biggest piece of Moses Lake’s UGA. There is potential development at Paradise Pointe, at Moses Pointe and along Westshore Drive.  

There’s also interest in development along Stratford Road as well as between the existing city limits and Patton Boulevard. Another area attracting inquiries is Potato Hill Road. The Grant County Public Utility District has purchased property on Kittlelson Road for a new maintenance center. 

“It adds up to over 2,000 units, just in known requests today in the UGA,” Law said.  

In addition, there’s still undeveloped property within the city, Law said.  

“Units for development that’s currently going on – (which) consists in projects in active stages of development – within the city limits was identified at 1,500 lots,” Law said.  

As of the end of 2024, the city also had proposed projects that would add 362 dwelling units and undeveloped land in Cascade Valley, he said, some of it in the city limits. If Cascade Valley was developed to the maximum allowed, it could add as many as 3,210 residential units. 

Law said that at current rates of development it would take a long time to develop all the land within the city limits. 

“So there’s a lot of residential development possibility within the city limits,” Law said.  

Moses Lake will need to upgrade water and sewer systems and increase their capacity to accommodate growth, he said, especially if services are provided outside the city limits. The city has an obligation to provide services to properties developed within the city, Law said, but not outside the city limits. City officials can choose to provide services, but it’s not required.  

Swartz said it’s up to the city and the council to determine whether or not to provide services, and if so, what the requirements will be.  

“The big one, we know, is water,” he said. 

In addition, Swartz said city services and housing are not the only subjects addressed in the comprehensive plan. Cities need to think about transportation and how people are going to get from one part of town to another. City officials must look at capital facilities, things like fire stations, and how those would accommodate more people.  

State officials have added new requirements, including additional environmental review and plans for economic development.  

Counties also are subject to comprehensive plan requirements, and Swartz said Grant County is working on its required update. Swartz said he wants to coordinate with county officials so the two – and their development plans – can work together.  

“We’re working on that,” he said.  

    Water, and getting enough to satisfy current and future demand, will be one subject under consideration as Moses Lake officials consider how to accommodate development.