Legislative Update
Friends of Clark County has been tracking progress on bills in the state legislature related to our mission. April 27th was the session end, and even with significant budget challenges they managed to finish on schedule.
Most of the bills we started watching never went anywhere, and that is generally a good thing. We were happy to see HB 1058/SB 5063, which would have given a tax break to Eric Temple of the Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad (PVJR), the operator of the county railroad, for rail improvements, has failed once again.
Bills that have passed:
- HB 1096 – increasing housing options through lot splitting in cities only.
- HB 1135 – Ensuring that local government planning complies with the Growth Management Act (GMA).
- HB 1039 – Allows La Center to extend services (e.g. water, sewer) to the Cowlitz reservation – Ilani. There was some concern that Ilani could then grow their boundaries, thus urbanizing areas that are currently agricultural. Given the high bar for a tribe to get that approved by the federal government, we do not believe that is a significant risk. The original bill was specific to Clark County, but that restriction has been removed.
- SB 5184 – Limit what cities can require for minimum parking requirements, making housing more affordable.
- HB 1217 – Rent Stabilization. Passed with a lot of back and forth and amendments.
- HB 1491 – Transit-Oriented Development (a big win for our friends at Futurewise!)
- SB 5587 – Concerning affordable housing development in counties not closing the gap between estimated existing housing units and existing housing needs. Supported by the City of Vancouver, which could result in financial support for affordable housing.
Our own 17th Legislative District representative, Kevin Waters, managed to insert the defunding of the Gorge Commission into the House budget. He was then convinced to put the funding back. Many people reached out to their legislators to ask that funding be extended. It is worth noting that if Washington failed to fund the Gorge Commission, Oregon would as well and the Commission would be dead—much to the joy of builders on both sides of the river. The Clark County Council sent a letter in support of funding the Gorge Commission to our legislators.
Here is a link to the full list of bills we tracked: legislation watchlist 2025.xlsx
To view any bill, go here.