From left, Lauren Helm with CZB, the County-hired contractor involved in updating the comprehensive plan, walks Becky Shankland through the process of providing input on the plan during Thursday’s open house in the White Rock Branch Library. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

When looking 10 years into the future for Los Alamos County, what does everyone hope to see and how does the County deliver on those hopes?

To help answer those questions, the Los Alamos Community Development Department (CDD) is pulling its comprehensive plan off the shelf to give it an update. Work started on updating the plan back in July 2025, County Planning Manager Danyelle Valdez said.

CZB was selected as the contractor to help assist with the update and just this past week, two open houses were held to start collecting the public input on the comprehensive plan. In addition, a survey is being conducted through April 3. To take part in the survey, visit https://www.planlosalamos.org.

Afterwards, Valdez said vision scenarios, or what the community sees as important, will be developed in May and reviewed with County staff and a steering committee. These different scenarios will then be shared and discussed with the public in June.

She emphasized the community’s involvement is key to developing an effective plan.

“We are trying to figure out what is important to the community … with future planning and growth … then we are going to be creating vision scenarios and present those vision scenarios next,” Valdez said.

Updating the comprehensive plan is nothing new; Valdez said this is regularly done every five to 10 years “to ensure that the County is meeting the goals of the previous comprehensive plan and strategize for the next 5-10 years.”

According to a staff presentation made to Los Alamos County Council in February, the comprehensive plan is a long-range plan for the County. This plan sets a general direction, goals and strategic priorities on where and how to grow as well as the budgets and capital investment planning. The comprehensive plan also serves as the foundation for zoning and development regulations.

The presentation further laid out how the plan will be developed to achieve all of this. There is a three-phase process. The first phase will review current plans and policies, analyze demographics, economics, housing, land use and open space. Additionally, the public will be engaged on key issues, their values and priorities. Develop vision scenarios, analyze implications and trade-offs associated with each scenario.
The second phase will engage the public on preferred scenarios and draft the planning framework. The third and final phase will produce a draft plan, gather feedback and make revisions. Valdez said the goal is to have the plan adopted by council in November or December. CDD Director Elias Isaacson said the last time the plan was updated was in 2016 and while some sections may be revised, the entire plan isn’t going to be scrapped.

“We’re really trying to keep this process as streamlined as possible so we can hit our targeted completion date,” he said.

Isaacson added that a lot of the 2016 version still holds true. However, a lot of other important planning documents have been adopted since then including the two downtown master plans, the economic vitality plan as well as the tourism master plan, to name a few. All these plans have key issues such as ADA, downtown standards, ideas for future land use for open space, which should also be reflected in the comprehensive plan. One major focus is future land use planning, Isaacson said.

“To implement the desires of the community, we will need to make sure future land use allows for type and location of growth that supports the (desired) scenario,” he said.

The core themes being addressed in the plan include housing, neighborhoods, economic development, redevelopment of downtown, open space and mobility, Isaacson said.

For more information about updating the comprehensive plan, visit https://www.planlosalamos.org

For more information about updating the comprehensive plan, visit https://www.planlosalamos.org

Scene from Thursday’s open house on the County’s comprehensive plan. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

Joe Granville, front, and others take part in the comprehensive plan open house Thursday at the White Rock Branch Library. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com