Island County’s Planning Commission on Monday recommended final approval of a set of countywide planning policies that will underlie the forthcoming update of the county’s comprehensive plan. That final approval must come from the Board of Island County Commissioners, which on Wednesday set Oct. 6 as the date for a public hearing on the policies.

“There’s a lot of good work in here,” Commissioner Jill Johnson said Wednesday, referring to the policies document.

The 44 pages of policies are required by the state’s Growth Management Act as a way to guide creating the comprehensive plan. The plan is meant to reflect changes  and anticipated changes in land use, housing, population growth, water, sewage, parks, schools, parks and recreation, transportation and shorelines.

The policies — like the comprehensive plan, mandated by the act — are also intended to help coordinate the acts of varied government agencies.

“We adopted the policies with a number of changes and recommended that the Board of Commissioners adopt them,” said Jeffery Wallin, chairperson of the planning commission.

The planning departments of the county, Coupeville, Langley and Oak Harbor held about 14 meetings to hash out the policies between March 2013 and this past January. Monday’s meeting of the planning commission was open to the public for final comments on the policies, though no one came forward to speak.