Washington State Zoning Atlas

by Trends Staff

There's a lot that goes into planning a city, and zoning laws play a major role in the process. Zoning laws dictate much of the layout of a city by separating it into chunks and deciding what can be done in those chunks. One of the biggest uses for this information is real estate education; By examining zoning laws one can learn more about not only the factors leading to the value of their home, but also the laws surrounding improvements they can make. For most people, this means things like making space for more people, such as a guest property in a backyard. To this end, the Washington Department of Commerce has released a tool, the Washington State Zoning Atlas, which can be found here. The site contains zoning information for almost all of Washington, including Wenatchee and East Wenatchee in Chelan and Douglas counties, respectively.

Both Wenatchee and East Wenatchee appear to follow the pattern for cities of their size without too much irregularity. Each has industrial zones along the river, though Chelan’s industrial areas seem to be more within Wenatchee proper. The Douglas side, East Wenatchee, appears to have almost all the office zoning. Both Wenatchee and East Wenatchee have a range of various types of residential zones, but Wenatchee has many more mixed-use zones, which could potentially drive-up property values.

To learn more about Chelan and Douglas counties, visit the Chelan-Douglas Trends site here.