News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of March 17th, 2025

March 16, 2025 in General

 

  • Last week:

    • ICYMI: BIG GOOD NEWS on the Clark County Comp Plan Update. You can check out last week’s Radar for the full rundown, and keep in mind whether you or your organization are interested in writing to the Council in support of their new direction prior to the resolution coming back to them. Last week’s Radar here: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/whats-on-our-radar-week-of-march-10th-2025/
    • Vacant Buildable Lands Model (VBLM) Work Session: The Council was given a presentation on the VBLM as a courtesy to the new Councilors. The VBLM is a planning tool developed to analyze residential, commercial, and industrial lands within urban growth areas (UGAs). It is used as the basis of the population and jobs allocations (which have already been decided) to the cities for the Comp Plan update. It is also the basis for deciding whether or not to expand UGAs, and the current model shows that there is sufficient land in the current UGAs, so there is little reason for significant expansion of them. For this reason, the building industry has been fighting to reopen it and recently wrote letters to the Mayors of the Cities providing questionable and biased advice about reopening the VBLM at this late date. Reopening the VBLM would throw the entire Comp Plan schedule off and is not in the people’s interest.

      You can watch the full Work Session on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUWBS4v-Cug

      You can read notes from the League of Women Voters’ (LWV) Observer Corps on the Work Session here: https://lwvclarkcounty.org/content.aspx?page_id=2507&club_id=160612&item_id=5126&pst=27552
    • Dabbler: At Council Time, the Council discussed sending yet another letter to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with multiple suggestions on what to do with Dabbler, most of which would have capitulated to the DNR when they have continued to wrongly ignore the County’s wishes on this matter. Representatives of FOCC, Vancouver Forest Keepers, and the Sierra Club urged against this idea, and the Council listened. They chose not to send a 3rd letter to the DNR, and instead moved to have a Work Session on the County’s Legacy Lands Program and how it might integrate with management of County trust lands, as well as a private meeting with Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove (Marshall and Little) in the short term only on the condition that he still appear before the public at a later time.

      A reminder that FOCC and Legacy Forest Defense Coalition’s (LFDC) motion for a preliminary injunction against the DNR is on March 24th at 1:30pm. Until then, we ask that you consider chipping in what you can to the Go Fund Me created by LFDC to raise the funds needed to fight the Dabbler and other legacy timber sales (totaling 2,328 acres) all over Washington: https://gofund.me/d4e1dcc0
  • This week: 
    • Tuesday, 3/18 at 6pm is a Clark County Council meeting. There is not much on the agenda related to FOCC’s work. Of note are 3 appointments to the Parks Advisory Board, a proclamation on Food Waste Prevention Week, and approval of a state grant for improvements to Klineline Pond. There is also an opportunity for Open Public Comment on any topic you’d like! 
    • Wednesday, 3/19 at 9am is a Work Session on various department overviews. At 1pm the same day is Council Time, nothing we are following on the agenda. As always, Council Time includes Councilor Reports and Policy Updates where we often get tipped off on future business, so FOCC will be watching just in case!

    • Deep dive into the week’s meeting agenda, including how to participate, here: https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/clark-county-council-meetings
  • Ongoing action items: 
    • See Dabbler action above to share and/or donate to LFDC’s legal fund to save the Dabbler and other legacy forests in Washington.
    • If you haven’t got around to it, be sure to check out the annual presentation by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), which was particularly inspirational and has implications for equity, air quality, and climate stability so we recommend a watch and consider writing a letter in support of BPAC’s requests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW993aaNHzw
    • RSVP and save the date for the Alliance for Community Engagement (ACE)’s WATER & the Comp Plan Workshop on March 28! The workshop will be held from 4:30 -7:30 pm at the Fourth Plain Community Commons, 3101 E. Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver, WA. DINNER IS PROVIDED, so please be sure to RSVP for dinner and a door prize entry! RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZbO9BeIs8pfjSivrpogg37Q5wC4drGn6DcuKOJpRYV1XTfw/viewform 
  • Heads up on other advisory board and commission meetings:
    • None
  • Other happenings:
    • For Clark County Farmers: FOCC is asking farmers to complete our 2025 Clark County Farm Survey by Saturday, April 12th, 2025. This year, we are happy to be able to offer a $20 Wilco gift card as an incentive for each farm that completes the survey (each farm is eligible for 1 gift card).

See you next week!
Karissa
FOCC Community Outreach

 

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