Comprehensive Plan Update August 2026
Submitted by Jackie Lane
In the last newsletter update, we explained the County Council’s selection of their Preferred Alternative (you can read that article here). FOCC believes, based upon the County’s and Cities’ own documents, that the Preferred Alternative unnecessarily, and without legal justification, proposes to expand La Center’s, Ridgefield’s, and Camas’s UGAs by unlawfully de-designating prime Agricultural lands. The Preferred Alternative also would allow Battle Ground to expand its western boundary through wetlands to Dollars Corner. FOCC has continually emphasized that all the forecasted growth for population, housing and employment can be accommodated in the existing UGAs and there is no legal justification to expand any UGA.
The County’s Comprehensive Plan update was due at the end of 2025. The County knowingly failed to meet that deadline. FOCC filed a petition with the GMHB (Growth Management Hearings Board) and that Board ruled that the County is out of compliance with the GMA and the County is now at risk of losing state grants and low-interest loans because the County does not qualify for those grants and loans due noncompliance with the GMA.
The County Council and the Planning Commission (PC) have had a number of work sessions with county staff to review the various Comp Plan chapters and supporting code changes. On July 24th the County submitted its Draft Comprehensive Plan to the state Department of Commerce, beginning its 60-day review. The FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Statement) and supporting documents, are also available to the public for review and written public comment. The public comment received can be found here: 2025 Update Project Library | Clark County .
The County Planning Commission held part one of their public hearings on 8/20. Part 2 – Deliberations – will be held on 9/3 at 6:30 PM. Video of part one, and meeting materials for both, can be found here: Planning Commission Hearings and Meeting Notes | Clark County.
Dates left for the Comp Plan Update adoption process:
September 16th at 9am: Clark County Council Comp Plan Update work session
Thursday, Oct. 1st at 4 pm: Clark County Council Public Hearing on the Comp Plan Update
Friday, Oct. 2nd at 10 am: Clark County Council deliberation and vote. If need be, deliberations will carry over to Monday, Oct. 5th at 10 am.
Tuesday, October 13th: Clark County Council Final Adoption Hearing. The 60-day GMA appeal period will begin when adoption takes place.
The FEIS is nearly 500 pages long, so quite the read. The presentations for the County Council and the Planning Commission are more digestible and can be found on the Council and PC pages. Information about the council and PC meetings of interest can be found here: 2025 Update Meeting and Event Information | Clark County
Friends of Clark County will, of course, be submitting written comments for the FEIS. While that is still a work in progress, the feedback from Futurewise can be found here: Futurewise’s July 30th 2026 Comments to the Clark County Planning Commission on the Comp Plan Update – Friends of Clark County in SW Washington (Futurewise is a statewide organization that Friends of Clark County partners with on land use and Growth Management Act issues).
As stated, FOCC’s belief is that the Preferred Alternative does not comply with the GMA for a number of reasons but especially given the expansion of Urban Growth Boundaries over Agricultural lands of long term commercial significance. Non-compliance of the last comp plan cost the county $10 million in 2016. We hope the county chooses to adopt a plan that complies with the GMA this time around.
The August 20,2026 Planning Commission Hearing is covered by CVTV and, if you missed the hearing, you will be able to view it at cvtv.org. The County will also have a transcript completed of that hearing and it will be posted on the Council’s “Grid” as soon as it can be completed.
Folks can still submit comments on the Comp Plan Update here.