The Clark County Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday, April 28, to move forward with Alternative 2 as the preferred direction for the county’s comprehensive plan. The decision keeps several city expansion requests under consideration as the county works toward a final decision by the court-ordered July 31 deadline.
The vote came after more than three hours of public testimony on Monday. City leaders and residents disagreed over whether the county should allow expansion onto agricultural resource lands.
Alternative 2, recommended by the county’s planning commission, includes limited urban growth area (UGA) expansions based on city requests from Battle Ground, Ridgefield, and La Center. The requests from Ridgefield and La Center involve removing the agricultural designation from certain lands.
Selecting a preferred alternative does not finalize any expansions. It allows the proposals to remain under consideration as the county completes its environmental review.
The comprehensive plan is a long-range policy document required under the state’s Growth Management Act that guides Clark County and its cities in planning for population growth, employment, housing, and land use through 2045.
A long process
The Growth Management Hearings Board has ordered the county to complete its overdue comprehensive plan update by July 31. Last July, the council narrowly approved a $155,003 contract for an agricultural lands study, moving the county’s comprehensive plan update ahead of the state’s December 31, 2025, deadline. The study was added after city leaders from Ridgefield and La Center requested an updated countywide analysis to support their efforts to reclassify nearby agricultural parcels. If certain lands are found eligible for removal of their agricultural designation, they could be added to a city’s UGA for future residential or commercial development.
State law required the agricultural lands study to review all relevant lands, not just those requested by Ridgefield and La Center. The study, conducted by ECONorthwest, analyzed 131,000 acres and compared them to state criteria for agricultural designation. Of the total area, about 101,000 acres meet the minimum criteria for agricultural land, though only about 32,500 acres are currently designated as such. The study excluded 29,000 acres, including Cowlitz Tribal lands and dedicated forest or resource lands.
Based on the study's details regarding certain properties, the council must still evaluate whether each property is already defined by urban growth, remains viable for agricultural production, and has long-term commercial significance to the county.
City requests for expansions
During Monday’s testimony, city officials asked the council to consider their 20-year growth needs. Battle Ground Planning Supervisor Sam Crummett requested approval of the city’s proposed expansion into Dollars Corner, roughly 450 acres of land West of the city. The Dollars Corner expansion would give the city room to accommodate job growth. Over the next 20 years, the city expects to add about 12,000 people, bringing its population near 37,200, and must plan for more than 5,600 new jobs. The UGA shift provides room for roughly 7,677 jobs. This would not require de-designation of agricultural resource lands.
Alternative 2, supported by the planning commission, included this proposed expansion but would have maintained the Meadow Glade area southeast of Battle Ground to remain in its UGA. City officials requested that the area remain outside of the UGA for this comprehensive plan cycle.
La Center’s request included the de-designation of agricultural resource land to expand its UGA, both Southwest and North, to meet its growth allocations. The city has been assigned 2,096 new housing units and 3,884 new jobs within the 2025-2045 planning period.
“Without these minor expansions, the city will fall short by nearly 600 jobs,” La Center City Planner Angie Merrill said.
The City of Ridgefield also requested the de-designation of agricultural resource lands. According to the city, 7,998 new housing units and 9,375 new jobs have been allocated within the 2025-2045 planning period. Full implementation of Alternative 2 would add capacity for 3,587 total residential units, 2,820 of which would be in the moderate-density category (affordable to households making less than 80% of AMI). Ridgefield Mayor Matt Cole asked the county to support local planning efforts.
“Our community has a vision and needs for how we grow, and our city council is tasked with meeting those needs, but we need your help,” Matt Cole said.
In response, others urged caution and highlighted the long-term consequences that expansion could have on farmland and natural resources.
“Second, we ask that no farmland is de-designated prior to a program being in place,” Agricultural Advisory Commission Co-Chair Mo McKenna said.
Environmental proponents and residents reiterated these concerns and called for the council to adopt Alternative 1, which would avoid expanding into agricultural lands.
“The choices you make here today will not just (be) about the land, but also the people who currently live on it, the wildlife, the water, and the entire ecosystem,” Cleaveland said.
Teresa Hardy of the Loo Wit Sierra Club also pressed the council to support environmental protections.
“We support land use policies that encourage healthy, equitable, and opportunity-rich communities and that protect our most valuable farmlands, forests, and water resources,” Hardy said.
The preferred alternative
On Tuesday, building on prior discussions, Councilor Matt Little moved to adopt Alternative 2 as the preferred option, allowing continued consideration of city proposals with slight modifications. One such change allowed Battle Ground to remove the Meadow Glade area from its UGA. Little’s motions passed with support from three council members. Councilor Wil Fuentes, who joined County Chair Sue Marshall in opposing the motion, warned that the decision could have lasting consequences.
“We could have made history today, and we could have stopped and reversed the reckless policies that councils and commissions before us have perpetuated on our county,” Fuentes said.
Councilor Glen Yung, who voted with the majority, advocated for keeping the county’s options open to meet the area’s housing needs.
“We've had a major housing shortage for quite some time, more than a couple of decades, and prior policies haven't changed that,” Glen Yung said.
Councilor Michelle Belkot nearly joined an amendment, supported by Fuentes and Marshall, that would have removed the de-designation of agricultural resource lands altogether, but corrected her vote after Little clarified what the amendment’s potential impact on the planning process. Belkot joined Tuesday’s meeting virtually.
With the preferred alternative selected, the county will continue with environmental review and analysis before the council makes a final decision later this summer.
