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Community Needs List
Help shape future investments in unincorporated King County
Have you identified a need in your community?
King County is gathering ideas for potential services, programs, facilities, and capital improvements in unincorporated areas (those outside city limits). The relevant county departments will review your ideas. The ones that are feasible will be added to the county's Community Needs List. The list will inform future budget requests and will help King County agencies and councilmembers better understand and support community priorities.
What ideas are feasible?
Feasible ideas are ones that…
- Are community priorities
- Respond to community needs
- Are consistent with King County plans and priorities
- Can legally be done by a King County Executive Branch department*
*Department of Community and Human Services, Department of Executive Services, Department of Local Services, Department of Natural Resources and Parks, King County Information Technology, King County Sheriff’s Office, King County Public Health, and Metro Transit
What areas are eligible?
This program covers six rural King County community service areas and five urban potential annexation areas.
The steps
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Step 1
Submit your idea
Tell us what you would like King County to do in the future for your community.
What to include
What potential service, program, facility, or capital improvement* would you like to see in your community?
*Capital improvements are major projects like new construction, renovation, or replacements that enhance public facilities and infrastructure. Examples include community buildings, park equipment, bus shelters, and equipment upgrades.What not to include
- Things that are within city limits. To make sure your idea is for unincorporated King County, check the address using this map.
- Things that are already part of a King County service, like customer service or pothole repairs.
- Ideas that would require changes to county policy, like using traffic cameras to reduce police interactions.
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Step 2
Review
The Department of Local Services coordinates the review of submitted ideas by the appropriate King County departments and adds feasible requests to the Community Needs List.
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Step 3
Not feasible?
If an idea is not feasible, it does not go on the Community Needs List. The Department of Local Services may send the idea to an organization or agency that could address the request. For example, an idea that involves a state highway would be forwarded to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
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Step 4
Feasible ideas
The King County Executive, working with the departments, decides which items, if any, from the Community Needs List will be included in the 2028-2029 budget proposal. The Department of Local Services also shares the Community Needs List with the King County Council to make them aware of priorities identified by the community.
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Step 5
Council reviews and passes budget
The King County Council reviews budget proposals and passes the budget for 2028‑2029.
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Step 6
Implementation
Departments enact funded items.
Timeline
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2025-2026
- Community members submit ideas for future investment.
- Departments review these ideas. Feasible ideas inform budget proposals.
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2027
The King County Council reviews budget proposals and passes a biennial budget for 2028‑2029.
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2028-2029
King County departments carry out programs, projects, and services included in the biennial budget.
Didn’t we do this already?
Yes, King County reached out in 2021 and 2022 to gather people’s ideas and evaluated those ideas to make sure they were within the county’s scope of work and feasible.
- See the 2021-2022 Community Needs List to find projects that are already included and get ideas for what can be added in the future.
- Find the current status of items on the 2021-2022 list.