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Growth Management Act/Comprehensive Plan Update
Jackie Lane, Board Treasurer
The County and cities are already knee deep in some of the work they need to do in order to complete their Comprehensive Plan updates. The Growth Management Act (GMA) requires Comp Plans to be reviewed and updated every 8 years, with updates allowed annually. The next update needs to be submitted by June 30 2025.
Clark County’s Comp Plan consists of the following elements:
Required
- Land Use
- Housing
- Capital Facilities and Utilities
- Rural and Natural Resource
- Transportation
- Economic Development
- Parks, Open Space and Recreation (PROs Plan)
Optional
- Schools
- Historic Preservation
- Environmental
- Community Design
- Shoreline Master Program
- Annexation
- Procedural Guidelines
The County has not published a schedule for the Comprehensive Plan process. They have completed the Buildable Lands report which is a predecessor. The Buildable Lands report and to-be-provided State population growth estimates (county gets to pick from low, medium and high estimates of 20 year population growth) will determine to what extent, if any, the Urban Growth Boundaries of the various cities need to expand. Information about the County Comprehensive Plan can be found here.
Battle Ground
Kudos to BG for providing good info on what they are doing, and for involving the community in creating a vision that will drive the process.
The other cities have information about planning and current Comp Plans on their web pages but nothing we could find about plans for the upcoming Comp Plan process – starting with how they will engage the community. That said, some have completed their PROS plans (Parks, open space and Recreation).
Friends of Clark County will be following the Comp Plan processes closely. Stay tuned for updates and how you can get involved. A Forum on the GMA and Comp Planning is in the works for early 2023!
What’s up at the WA State Legislature this season? From Futurewise’s legislative update:
- Middle Housing – Legislation to bring and end to exclusionary zoning by allowing 4-plexes in all areas zoned for detached single family residences, and 6-plexers near transit (within Urban Growth Boundaries – UGAs). A bill from the last session that did not pass can be found here.
- Transit Oriented Development (TOD) – Increase zoned capacity around transit and remove parking minimums around transit.
- GMA Climate – Requires largest and fastest growing counties (and their cities) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled through land use planning. Require jurisdictions to plan for resiliency and address the impacts of Climate Change.
Click here to follow Futurewise and support their legislative agenda.
For the patient and curious, all GMA-related bills from last session (most of which got nowhere) can be found here.
Lastly, you can find 2023 Pre-filed bills here.
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