Los Alamos County opens second survey for 2026 plan update
A second Plan Los Alamos survey is open through July 11, and its answers could steer housing, road priorities and infill across a county with little land to spare.
Los Alamos County opened a second survey for its 2026 Comprehensive Plan Update and will keep it open through July 11, giving residents, business owners, community partners and members of the local workforce another chance to shape the county’s next long-range planning framework. The questions build on vision scenarios drawn from the first round of public input and will help guide future decisions on housing, traffic, land use and other major choices that affect daily life in Los Alamos and White Rock.
The update is being developed with planning consultant czb under the Plan Los Alamos process, which began in January 2026. The update renews the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, the county’s first full update of the 1987 plan, and earlier outreach included March open houses in Los Alamos and White Rock along with the first broad community survey. In March, County Manager Anne Laurent said the county had gone 10 years without a full comprehensive plan update and that best practice is to revisit it every five years.
The comprehensive plan guides land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, economic development, redevelopment and infill, along with environmental stewardship. The plan is used as a policy basis for land-use decisions and amendments to the Development Code, so answers submitted now can affect later rezoning requests, development proposals and the county’s next round of policy choices. The county’s planning division maintains and updates the plan and serves as a liaison to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Los Alamos County covers 109.1 square miles, had a 2020 Census population of 19,419 and was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau at 19,407 on July 1, 2025. Housing pressure is part of the picture too: 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey estimates put the median owner-occupied home value at $495,800 and the median gross rent at $1,375.
The county is also moving forward on an Affordable Housing Plan and a Short-Range Transit Plan at the same time. The comprehensive plan update is scheduled to reach final review by the Planning and Zoning Commission and the County Council in November and December 2026.
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