News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of October 6th, 2025

October 6, 2025 in General

 

  • Last week:

    • The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the 2026 Comprehensive Plan Update was released! FOCC is reviewing this draft, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can view the full announcement by Clark County here. The comment period is now open and county planners are holding office hours for questions on Thursdays, Oct. 16th-Nov. 20th.

    • Wednesday was Council Time. Items of note:

      • A Legacy Lands forty year anniversary proclamation was moved forward.

      • More Camp Bonneville law enforcement use agreements (beyond the FBI) were discussed. In March, FOCC published a newsletter article breaking down everything going on with Camp Bonneville, which can be viewed here:
        https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/camp-bonneville-breakdown/

        FOCC’s position was summarized as: “…The County needs to move forward with its plans for conservation and public access by focusing on the cleanup, not managing a host of law enforcement activities for many more years. Camp Bonneville is a beautiful, wild place that has experienced much abuse in its history, and it was provided to the County with the intent of remediation and the purpose of natural resource conservation.”

        The council voted down the agreement for the FBI’s continued misuse of Camp Bonneville recently (prompted by a security breach and unsolved theft of FBI ammunition), but unfortunately the council has accepted a work session with the FBI to allow them to make their case again on Wednesday, October 22nd at 8:30am. The Clark County Sheriff advocated to retain law enforcement uses of Camp Bonneville for the long term, but welcomed discussion of other options. Staff also discussed that they have been looking into modifying the conveyance restrictions to allow for continued law enforcement use, even as Camp Bonneville remains in the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan as a future regional park.

        Direction was as follows:

        SWAT: Approved negotiations to go forward with SWAT (SWAT being defined as regional partners that do not include the FBI) for a two year agreement for the shooting range, simulation/cantonment area, and a meeting area, leaving provisions for fees and cleanup to be left up to staff, and with permission to continue use with no agreement in place in the meantime, recognizing that it would take a long time to bring one back for approval. Chair Marshall stated, “Hopefully it doesn’t take two years to get the contract negotiated,” to which Manager Otto’s responded that they “can’t promise that one.” Taken together, this means the council has approved somewhere between 2 to 4 years of continued SWAT activities at Camp Bonneville, despite the clear use restrictions on the property and the plans for a regional park. Councilor Yung stated his provision that there be “no activity that contributes further to pollution.”

        ATF: Using a separate, fenced area that has 3 magazines storing explosives. Staff will come back with more information and ATF can continue to store explosives in the meantime.

        MEDU (Portland Bomb Squad): Not currently in use. Staff to come back with more information.

      • Forests: Councilor Little presented an opportunity to nominate a Clark County forest area for the “Swap Fund” appropriated by the WA State Legislature, which would swap an area at risk for logging by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for private, less environmentally-significant plantation forest, noting that local environmental groups had proposed an area at Larch Mountain to be selected for conservation by the DNR. The council was supportive of looking at the proposal for nomination passed along by Councilor Little—a proposal that FOCC is in support of!

      • Manager Otto noted that many agenda items have been appearing during the “Councilor Reports” section of Wednesday Council Time meetings, but they are not listed on the agenda ahead of time, preventing the public from knowing what agenda items are coming and being able to comment on them. The council agreed to figure out a process for ensuring more transparency about those agenda items ahead of time. Much appreciated!

      • Councilor Little requested a work session for discussing aggregate with the industry, prompting Chief Civil Deputy, Christine Cook, to correct a statement made by the DNR at the morning’s work session regarding Growth Management Act (GMA) requirements. Councilor Yung indicated a wish to revisit surface mining overlays in this Comprehensive Plan Update, and Cook explained that it would be difficult in the extreme. The council agreed to stick a pin in it until after the Comp Plan Update.

      • Policy Updates:

        • More legacy forest timber sales: Commissioner Upthegrove supportive of selling off existing legacy forest timber sales, including the Turnover and Dendrophobia sales. The Copper Head timber sale is now also moving forward. Chair Marshall suggested looking into a committee for the Junior Taxing Districts (those who receive funds from DNR timber sales) to better understand the funding.
    • There was a presentation by the Department of Natural Resources on aggregate resources. As previously noted, statements made by the DNR regarding GMA requirements were later disputed by county legal staff. You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/Cy5IjfPn69o?si=JH760WuGMueKhsO2

    • There was a Planning Commission work session on the Housing Options Study and Action Plan (HOSAP) multifamily and affordable housing code updates. Items of note:

  • This week:

    • Due to a lack of quorum, Clark County Council meetings are cancelled this week. This will give you an opportunity to deep dive into all of the important topics from last week!
  • Commission/advisory board meetings this week:
    • There is a Regional Transportation Council meeting on Tuesday, October 7th, at 4 pm via CVTV (Comcast channel 23/HD 323), www.cvtv.org to stream, Zoom, or in person at the Public Service Center, sixth floor Training Room, 1300 Franklin Street, Vancouver

See you next week!
FOCC Community Outreach

 

    WEB & SEO