🚨 CALL-TO-ACTION to Save 6,000 acres of Ag & Forest Land in the Clark County Comprehensive Plan Update
What’s at stake?
The loss of 3,000 acres of agricultural land and 3,000 acres of forest in Clark County’s Comprehensive Plan Update to sprawling development and mining.
What’s happening?
The Clark County Council recently gave direction to amend the scope of work for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the 2025 Comp Plan Update regarding the hasty resource lands study (required by law to de designate precious ag and forest lands for other uses) and site specific requests (SSRs) for mining. If you need a refresher, you can review our social media post on this topic here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16KVP7GVs2/
This was almost a huge win for Clark County’s water, air, climate, resiliency, quality of life, and more—however, private industry interests worked around the clock to stop this Amended Resolution from passing as planned. As a result, some Councilors recently indicated a willingness to change their decision and tabled the vote until this Tuesday, April 15th at 10am, leaving the door open to sacrifice 6,000 acres of Clark County’s agricultural and forest land in the Comp Plan Update.
What is the action?
FOCC, our partners and supporters must generate a BIG showing of support for the Amended Resolution to the Comp Plan DEIS to pass. Email written comments or plan on testifying in person at the Public Service Center in downtown Vancouver or online (scroll down to locate the address and Webex Link for the Tuesday, April 15th 10am meeting. The Amended Resolution is Separate Business Item #2). Below are some talking points for you to use, and be sure to include the main statement at the top to be clear about what you support! Don’t have time to write and email? You can use Friends of the Columbia River Gorge’s form letter instead.
Subject Line: Pass the Amended Comp Plan DEIS Resolution
Send to: comp.plan@clark.wa.gov CC sue.marshall@clark.wa.gov glen.yung@clark.wa.gov wil.fuentes@clark.wa.gov michelle.belkot@clark.wa.gov matt.little@clark.wa.gov rebecca.messinger@clark.wa.gov
Main Statement: Please pass Clark County RESOLUTION NO. 2025-04-xx AS IS, which would omit options from the Comp Plan DEIS that would require the de-designation of resource lands or surface mining overlay designations, as well as discontinue the countywide resource lands study.Â
Supporting Talking Points:Â
- The Council has already informally endorsed the best path forward for the Comp Plan DEIS and just needs to formalize that path by adopting the Amended Resolution as drafted. This amended resolution was agreed to unanimously during Council Time on March 5, 2025.
- Clark County Community Planning has identified that there is enough land within existing urban growth boundaries to accommodate all projected population growth for the County. Therefore, by seeking to include resource land de-designation scenarios in the DEIS, the Clark County Council would be ignoring its obligations to act on the climate emergency and other elements of the Growth Management Act (reducing sprawl, transportation, protecting and enhancing the environment, open space and recreation, natural resources) intended to protect the quality of life for Clark County residents and preserve our precious natural resources that ensure community resiliency.
- The cities can simply submit plans that do not destroy our dwindling agricultural and forest land while contributing to harmful sprawl. Because county staff has indicated there isn’t time to do the resource lands study correctly, we could end up with a poor, hastily done study leading to development and mines where forests and farms once were. This is not what I want the future of Clark County to look like. Additionally, taxpayers would pay a huge price for a poor study that would render the Comp Plan Update legally indefensible, as indicated by County staff. The Council should return to their plan to delay the study after the Comp Plan Update when time and resources are available.