As the King County Council continues to review its update of the county comprehensive plan — the county’s guiding document for growth over the next 20 years — we understand that islanders are eager to get a better grasp on what’s in the important plan. So are we!

The problem is, like any master plan that deals with zoning across a wide swath of disparate communities, the plan is extraordinarily complex, and written in a kind of language that is difficult for ordinary citizens to understand. We’ve editorialized about the need for the county to find some way to translate this arcane jargon better to the public.

Islanders love their community and many fear that it will change because of the plan. But facts, not fear, need to guide this conversation.

One point that has been missed in many of these conversations is a relatively simple one: the majority of Vashon is rural, not residential zoned — which means that most of the island is not affected by most of the plan’s recent striking amendment changes to residential-zoned areas, which are almost entirely contained within the Vashon town area.

We wanted to publish our in-depth piece on that and other comprehensive plan subjects this week. But we are only human and we need a little more time to dot our Is and cross our Ts. We’ll delve comprehensively into the plan in next week’s paper.

In the meantime, we were glad to sit down last week with Vashon’s council member Teresa Mosqueda — who has shown great interest in visiting Vashon, attending local events and truly getting to know our community — to talk about the plan.

At this meeting, Mosqueda once again went over the overarching goals of the plan: to advance policies that better support affordable housing and childcare, workers and small businesses, healthcare and social services, and climate resilience on Vashon Island and throughout the county.

But Mosqueda is not only eager to talk to reporters.

Immediately responding to a request from the Vashon-Maury Community Council, Mosqueda and Comprehensive Plan staff have also scheduled a virtual meeting to garner islanders’ feedback, ideas and suggestions to be considered before the completion of the plan in December.

Mark your calendars for 12-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, to attend this virtual meeting, and sign up in advance at surveymonkey.com/r/vashon-meeting.

Stay tuned for our deep dive on how the plan will affect islanders in next week’s newspaper, in advance of the meeting.

As always, we are approaching this task with care and deep reporting, because — did we mention the complexity of this task? Our newsroom staff is small, and our to-do list is large.

What matters most to us is that our reporting is comprehensive and completely factual. After all, we’re in the answering business.

This week, as always, our newspaper is filled with reporting on what makes our community tick — a reflection of why we all care so much about our community.

Among other articles, there are stories about history hidden in an unmarked grave in Vashon Cemetery; a decision by the members of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council to issue official support for the Seattle Indian Health Board’s plans to open its Thunderbird Recovery Center on Vashon; a joyous recap of a remarkable event for island youth at Vashon’s Burton Area Recreation Course, a legislative update, and as always, previews of upcoming performances and events produced by our vibrant arts community.

Our newspaper reflects our entire community — the heart and soul of Vashon, and we deeply thank our community for their support of our work to uplift, inform and educate islanders.