News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of April 21st, 2025

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• Last week:
  • If you missed last week’s Radar, you can get caught up here: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/whats-on-our-radar-week-of-april-14th-2025/
  • BIG (and disappointing) update regarding the Clark County Comprehensive Plan update. This process became so convoluted that there is just no way to do a simple explainer. That’s why Radar followers are getting a sneak peek at our upcoming newsletter article TODAY with the full breakdown: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/clark-county-comprehensive-plan-update-the-latest-developments/
    The TLDR: we will have to keep fighting against the de-designation of agricultural land in Ridgefield and La Center, we cannot count on the majority of this Council not to risk compliance with state law and protect critical access to grants and low-interest loans from the state (remember the climate policies that are making their way through adoption at this point are not funded as just one example of what could be in jeopardy), but the one silver lining is that 3,000 acres worth of surface mining overlays (SMO’s) over forest land are now officially out of consideration for the Comp Plan Update.
    
  • Chelatchie Bluff SMO: The Clark County Council recently gave unanimous direction to move forward with repealing the Chelatchie Bluff surface mining overlay (SMO) over environmentally sensitive forest land in response to FOCC’s win at the Washington Court of Appeals, which would bring the County back into compliance with state law. The matter came before the Planning Commission at a public hearing last week, and the vote to repeal the ordinance was unanimous! It will now go back to the Clark County Council for the final hearing. We’ll let you know when it’s coming up. You can watch the hearing here:
    https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/38031

• This week:
  • This week, there is only a Board of Health meeting on the agenda as well as Council Time at 1pm on Wednesday. We’ll be looking out at Council Time for any Councilor Reports or Policy Updates relevant to our mission!

• • Deep dive into the week’s meeting agenda, including how to participate, here: https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/clark-county-council-meetings
    

• Heads up on other advisory board and commission meetings:
  • The Clark County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) will have a meeting tomorrow, April 22nd at 6pm. More details here: https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/meeting-information-0

• Other happenings:
  

• • The Alliance for Community Engagement is holding a Food Security & the Comp Plan Workshop this Thursday, April 24th from 4:30 to 7:30 at the Fourth Plain Community Commons, 3101 E. Fourth Plain Blvd. Check out the flyer and RSVP here.

  • Public resource: Reminder about a great public resource! FOCC’s own Jackie Lane tracks Clark County’s land use activities in a publicly available document here, so be sure to bookmark it. We’ve recently added many important Comp Plan target dates leading up all the way to the end of the year: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10cpQ2gWr86wLyIlRvhgI9eRF8aesDYIZ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108071388396855006181&rtpof=true&sd=true

See you next week!
Karissa
FOCC Community Outreach