What’s on our Radar – Week of February 16th, 2026
Happy Monday! Welcome to Friends of Clark County’s Weekly Radar, where we break down what we are following in Clark County government for the week and highlight opportunities for you to engage. You can take action this week regarding the FRDU railroad controversy, get engaged with the Comp Plan update, Heritage Farm, what’s going on in the state legislature, and more. Plus, if you missed our amazing parks and trails forum, you’ll find the link to the recording in the highlights.
URGENT CALLS TO ACTION
📣 Help protect Clark County resource lands from irresponsible railroad expansion
SB 5517 carved out a special exception that allowed industrial development on resource lands and critical areas near
a short-line railroad in Clark County — something no other county is allowed to do. There is no valid reason for Clark County to be exempt from protecting farmland, forests, and mineral lands simply because they are “adjacent” to a railroad. SB 5820 repeals that exception and requires Clark County to follow the Growth Management Act, just like every other county in Washington. Please email, write, or call your legislators in support of SB 5820.
More information and resources are available in our full Call to Action on our website: URGENT: Help Protect Clark County Resource Lands from Irresponsible Railroad Expansion
THIS WEEK’S RADAR
Our weekly radar is intended to highlight Clark County meetings and events relevant to Friends of Clark County priorities. This list is not exhaustive. For a full list of Clark County meetings, please visit Clark County Council and Clark County Community Planning on the Clark County website.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17th
Ethics Review Commission meeting at 2:30pm: Meeting information
Clark County Council meeting at 6pm: Meeting information
- Open public comment opportunity: speak for up to 3 minutes on any topic.
- Resolution: Statement on Immigration Enforcement Activity
- Proclamation on Lunar New Year
- Public Hearing: Extension of Moratorium pertaining to the redevelopment of existing mobile home or manufactured home parks
- Salmon Creek and Whipple Creek Farm Preservation Project with Washington Farmland Trust
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18th
Clark County Council work sessions starting at 9am: Meeting information
- Heritage Farm: Past to Present
- Planning Commission’s Recommendation on a Preferred Alternative for the Comp Plan update. Review the Preferred Alternative Selection Table.
Council Time at 1pm: Meeting information
- Letter of Support for Habitat for Humanity mobile home park project
- Board and Commission reports
- Legislative updates (SB 5820 may be discussed again)
- Submit a public comment (agenda items only)
LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS
Commission and Advisory Board meetings
There were a whole lot of commission and advisory board meetings last week, including the Parks Advisory Board (audio linked in chart), Charter Review Commission (they’re just getting started), the Solid Waste Advisory Commission, Neighborhood Associations Council of Clark County, Urban County Policy Board, and the Railroad Advisory Board (audio linked in chart).
Council Time
- There was a huge showing regarding the Clark County Council’s statement on federal immigration enforcement. The Council discussed and made modifications to the first draft. It is now headed to the Clark County Council meeting this Tuesday, as noted above.
- There was a work session request for the Development and Engineering Advisory Board (DEAB) to present their annual report to the Council and review their 2026 work plan. Chair Marshall mentioned that she would like to take a look at the DEAB’s bylaws and review their scope of work. She said she received several emails about their offensive testimony at the joint Planning Commission meeting and noted that their comments were outside of their purview as a technical advising committee. Read FOCC’s statement concerning comments from a representative of the DEAB.
- During legislative updates, the Council discussed SB 5820 to protect Clark County resource lands from irresponsible expansion (FOCC supports this! See our Call to Action above). The Council could not agree whether to support the bill or not and requested further legal advice.
- View the full February 11th Clark County Council Time meeting.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Friends of Clark County’s Forum on Parks and Trails
We recently held an amazing forum on parks and trails! Thank you to FOCC’s own Mo McKenna, who facilitated the discussion, and to our wonderful panelists Ross Hoover (Clark County Parks and Nature), Glen Yung (Clark County Councilor), and David Perlick (City of Vancouver Parks). Watch our January 2026 Forum, Bridging the Gap: Funding Our Parks and Trails
Miss the invite? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss the next one!
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Clark County Calendar of Land Use Activities
This great public resource compiled by FOCC’s own Jackie Lane tracks Clark County’s land use activities in a publicly available document. Make sure to bookmark it!
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See you next week!
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