An effort to plan ahead for development in the Woodland Bottoms has a chance of moving forward as the city of Woodland has a joint agreement with Cowlitz County in front of them.
During its June 5 meeting, the Woodland City Council got its first look at a proposed agreement between the city and the county. The agreement comes after the city’s own efforts to adopt code for The Bottoms stalled. The land in unincorporated Cowlitz County is located to the southwest of Woodland city limits and is bounded by the Lewis and Columbia rivers.
The seven-page agreement lays out the tasks and resources both the city and county will put forth in the planning effort of The Bottoms.
Both governments “agree to use best efforts to complete the joint planning effort” in time for Woodland’s 2026 update to its comprehensive growth management plan, according to the document.
The agreement identifies a number of potential issues the planning process will address. Preservation of agricultural land, expansion of the city to allow for growth, expansion of infrastructure and traffic impacts including on Woodland’s two exits on Interstate 5 are some of what’s under consideration.
The agreement follows Woodland’s planning efforts late last year.
Last September, the city council voted to rescind existing planning agreements with Cowlitz County. Those planning agreements dated back to the 1980s and were used by the county to stop unilateral planning work by the city in The Bottoms. Woodland first looked at adjusting its comprehensive growth management plan map in 2018, Woodland Community Development Director Travis Goddard said last year.
Also that month, the city council approved an expansion of Woodland’s urban growth area to include The Bottoms. Per state law, the urban growth area is where a city may eventually annex.
In October, the council approved the creation of an agricultural zoning designation. That addition to zoning was in response to concerns that land in The Bottoms, which is currently used for farming, would be pressured to develop if brought into city limits.
Woodland’s decision to move ahead with its own planning drew legal challenges by the county. On Dec. 19, the city council voted to rescind the expansion of the growth area and the agricultural designation after Cowlitz County filed a State Environmental Policy Act appeal and a lawsuit in county superior court.
“The council agreed to withdraw those ordinances and resolutions in order to facilitate a discussion about doing a master planning (document) for The Bottoms,” Goddard said at the June meeting.
Though the city is currently locked out of planning in unincorporated areas, the county can go ahead as it’s part of their jurisdiction. The Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners rejected a zoning change on 200 acres of land in The Bottoms to a suburban designation in September. That move prevented close to 600 residential lots from being built to the south of Woodland city limits.
The agreement prevents both the city and the county from making any changes to planning policies or development regulations in The Bottoms on their own until the master planning is complete, except in the case of an “immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare.”
That part of the agreement isn’t intended to stop individual property owners from requesting code changes, the document stated. The agreement has a provision for those requests, which require the city or the county to notify the other about that activity. The city and the county will also notify the other about any development permit applications in The Bottoms.
The agreement lays out a number of stakeholders with planning interests that range from government districts, agencies and departments, to representatives of the agricultural industry in The Bottoms. Those stakeholders will be consulted for input on the planning process.
Goddard said he planned to meet with Cowlitz County Building and Planning staff later that week to coordinate the distribution of the agreement to those stakeholders and to figure out how to begin on the planning work. He added the Port of Woodland has earmarked funds in order to get the master planning work done.
The Woodland City Council will vote on formal approval of the agreement at its June 19 meeting, Goddard said. Cowlitz County’s commissioners are set for a vote the following day.
