The Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) is one of the elements of Pierce County's comprehensive plan that is required by Washington's Growth Management Act (GMA). Capital facilities generally have very long useful lives, significant costs, and are not mobile. The definition of "capital improvement" is given in CFP Objective 1 and in the Glossary.

The CFP is a six year plan for financing capital improvements that supports the County's current and future population and economy. The capital improvements included in the CFP represent the County's most current understanding of future needs matched to expected revenue. The Plan also includes the projected needs for capital facilities for the next 20 years, based on current trends and expenses. One of the principal criteria for identifying needed capital improvements is standards for levels of service (LOS). The CFP contains LOS standards for each public facility and requires that new development be served by adequate facilities. Also included in the CFP is the designation of facilities required to be "concurrent" based on the definition contained in WAC 365-195-210(4). Concurrency is required for a subset of adequate public facilities. Concurrency means: ". . . that adequate public facilities are available when the impacts of development occur." For transportation facilities, concurrent with development means "improvements or strategies are in place at the time of development, or that a financial commitment is in place to complete the improvements or strategies within six years." (RCW 36.70A.070(6)(e)) The CFP also contains objectives, principles and standards that guide and implement the provision of adequate public facilities.

The purpose of the CFP is to use sound fiscal policies to provide adequate public facilities consistent with the Land Use Element on a schedule concurrent with, or prior to, the impacts of development in order to achieve and maintain adopted standards for LOS, and to exceed the adopted standards, when possible.

The Plan is updated annually to reflect a new six-year timeframe, current population projections, and changes to proposed capital improvement projects. The County uses population estimates prepared annually by the State's Office of Financial Management (OFM), to calculate LOS requirements and the cost of projects needed to meet the LOS. In order to meet timelines tied to preparing the County's annual budget, preparation of the CFP by County agencies needs to be initiated prior to the release of OFM's population figures. For this reason, population figures in the CFP are based on OFM numbers issued in July of the year prior to CFP adoption.

Tables in the CFP identify sources and uses of funds for projects. In each annual update, completed projects may be removed from the tables, while new proposed projects are added.