What’s on our Radar – Week of March 31st, 2025
- Last week:
- If you missed last week’s Radar, you can get caught up here: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/whats-on-our-radar-week-of-march-24th-2025/
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- Victory in sight! Last Wednesday at Council Time, the Clark County Council 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. There will be a Planning Commission Work Session on the issue (see below), and at some point a resolution to repeal the ordinance will come back before Council. This is a BIG DEAL! If you care about this issue and have the capacity, please consider preparing to submit written public comments or testify to support the Council in doing the right thing when the resolution to repeal comes before them!
- Victory in sight! Last Wednesday at Council Time, the Clark County Council 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. There will be a Planning Commission Work Session on the issue (see below), and at some point a resolution to repeal the ordinance will come back before Council. This is a BIG DEAL! If you care about this issue and have the capacity, please consider preparing to submit written public comments or testify to support the Council in doing the right thing when the resolution to repeal comes before them!
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- There was a Work Session from Public Works called Sustainable Future – Parks and Nature, regarding the County’s level of service (LOS) deficit and lack of operational funding. They recommended creating a Sustainable Futures Task Team that would include key community stakeholders to evaluate and review potential funding sources, provide updates and reports to the Council, and ultimately provide a recommendation on a path forward for funding our parks needs.
Additionally, FOCC has shared disagreement with the County regarding its inclusion of the entire acreage of Camp Bonneville in its Regional Natural Area acreage while it is not cleaned up and continues being used as a multi-agency law enforcement training facility with no public access. At this meeting, staff referenced incorrect information in their own Camp Bonneville FAQ’s, and it turns out that only 350 acres of Camp Bonneville are counted toward LOS in the PROS Plan.
You can watch the Work Session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0vQBQWPDoQ
You can read more about Camp Bonneville issues in the Camp Bonneville Breakdown article from our spring newsletter: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/camp-bonneville-breakdown/
- There was a Work Session from Public Works called Sustainable Future – Parks and Nature, regarding the County’s level of service (LOS) deficit and lack of operational funding. They recommended creating a Sustainable Futures Task Team that would include key community stakeholders to evaluate and review potential funding sources, provide updates and reports to the Council, and ultimately provide a recommendation on a path forward for funding our parks needs.
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- Dabbler Update: Judge Vanderwood denied Legacy Forest Defense Coalition and FOCC’s motion for a preliminary junction on logging the Dabbler legacy forest timber sale in Clark County Superior Court last week, meaning they can start logging prior to having our day in court on the merits 3 months from now.
- Dabbler Update: Judge Vanderwood denied Legacy Forest Defense Coalition and FOCC’s motion for a preliminary junction on logging the Dabbler legacy forest timber sale in Clark County Superior Court last week, meaning they can start logging prior to having our day in court on the merits 3 months from now.
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- The final Clark County Climate Project Community Advisory Group meeting was canceled due to a severe weather watch. The new date has not been set yet.
- The final Clark County Climate Project Community Advisory Group meeting was canceled due to a severe weather watch. The new date has not been set yet.
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- Public Health presented about PFAs and drinking water. You can watch that here: https://youtu.be/ybCyxhnF-pQ?si=yPMfGlrciy0e1aSC
- This week:
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- Spring Break! No Council meetings this week, but there is a Planning Commission Work Session (see below).
- Ongoing action items:
- CALL-TO-ACTION on the Clark County Comp Plan Update by April 8th: You may recall that the Council recently gave direction to amend the scope of work for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the 2025 Comp Plan update regarding the hasty resource lands study and the site specific requests (SSRs) for mining. If you need a refresher, you can review our social media post on this topic here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16KVP7GVs2/
This is potentially a HUGE WIN for Clark County’s water, air, climate, resiliency, quality of life, and more—IF the Council ultimately passes an amended resolution. We now have a date for when that decision will take place: Tuesday, April 8th at 10am! Private industry interests will try to stop this resolution from passing, which is why FOCC and others must generate a big showing of support for the County to stand strong and do the right thing! Please consider preparing written public comment or showing up to testify, and we’ll provide the details on how to engage as soon as it is added to the Council’s weekly agenda page. Until then, read the staff report and amended resolution here: https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/2025-update-meeting-and-event-information
- CALL-TO-ACTION on the Clark County Comp Plan Update by April 8th: You may recall that the Council recently gave direction to amend the scope of work for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the 2025 Comp Plan update regarding the hasty resource lands study and the site specific requests (SSRs) for mining. If you need a refresher, you can review our social media post on this topic here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16KVP7GVs2/
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- See Chelatchie update and action item above.
- Heads up on other advisory board and commission meetings:
- Thursday, April 3rd is a Planning Commission Work Session at 5:30pm that includes discussion of the Chelatchie Bluff SMO. Meeting information here: https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/planning-commission-hearings-and-meeting-notes
- Other happenings:
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- 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).
- 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).
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- Food Waste Prevention Week: Food Waste Prevention Week is April 7th-13th. Stay engaged on social media, as we’ll be sharing information related to this!
- Food Waste Prevention Week: Food Waste Prevention Week is April 7th-13th. Stay engaged on social media, as we’ll be sharing information related to this!
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- 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