News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of September 15th, 2025

September 15, 2025 in General

Friends of Clark County’s annual fundraising dinner was a blast! Thank you to those who came to celebrate our achievements and sustain us for the work ahead.

  • Last week:
    • There was a Clark County Council work session on the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Update. Important notes:
      • The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is set to be published on October 1st with a 60-day comment period. Note that the agricultural lands study is expected to be completed by November 4th, so the last half of that comment period will be most important.
      • The Clark County Council review of the ag study is scheduled for November 12th.
      • After Councilor Yung stated that someone from Ridgefield told him  they disagreed that their population allocations were higher than what the county provided, Community Planning staff responded, stating in no uncertain terms that they had exceeded their population allocations and that Ridgefield had been informed by the county about it. Planner Jose Alvarez stated, “Ridgefield, for their housing, they’re double what they need in some instances—there is no question…They’re well over and they know that.” This is important because if cities are working from higher population allocations than they are supposed to, then their plans would be unnecessarily taking up more land, and Ridgefield in particular has proposed destroying agricultural land for housing. It is unclear at this time if there are other cities that are exceeding their allocations. Hopefully this will be discussed at the joint retreat with the cities this week. You can watch the full work session from last week here: 9 10 25 WS 2025 Comp Plan Update
      • The current schedule for Comp Plan completion is June 2026 (6 months late), but there could be as much as a 3 month additional delay depending on the outcome of the ag study and related council decisions, given there are multiple scenarios in which they would need to modify the DEIS, such as:
        • The county could reallocate population growth among cities. 
        • It is possible that ag lands that get de-designated as a result of the ag lands study won’t be the lands the cities want to annex.
    • There were multiple important councilor reports at the Clark County Council Time (full recording here: 9 10 25 Council Time):

      • Chair Marshall referenced a letter to the Planning Commission signed by a coalition of community-based organizations representing underserved communities in Clark County in response to recent comments by commissioners questioning the reality of historical and systemic racism, indicating they may try to undermine these groups’ contributions in regard to equity policies in the county’s Climate Element for the Comprehensive Plan Update. She recommended listening sessions/training for the council to understand these equity issues, but the council took no further action.

      • Camp Bonneville: Glen Yung confirmed that he and other councilors took private meetings with the FBI the previous week, who are looking to undermine the finality of the council’s vote against a contract for their continued misuse of Camp Bonneville. He asked that the council have a work session for the FBI to give the same briefing publicly. It was unclear if some councilors might be wanting to revisit the vote (although Chair Marshall and Councilor Fuentes seem to be holding firm to their original decision), so those who care about this issue should stay vigilant. Chair Marshall suggested in the interest of fairness that the council also request a work session with the Friends of Camp Bonneville, with Councilor Fuentes in support. Councilor Yung said he did not want to decide on that but might support it later. His reasoning for delay was unclear. The County Manager stated that they are moving forward with terminating the FBI’s use of CB per the council’s decision at this point. We have also obtained a copy of the termination letter that was sent by the county. Notes about the letter:

        • It states that the FBI had been operating in good faith under the terms of their previous agreement, which is factually incorrect on many counts.
        • It is dated 21 days after the Clark County Council voted down the FBI contract and staff stated they would be moving forward with termination.
        • It provides the FBI 60 days to cease activities and 60 additional days to remove property.
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    • There was a work session regarding returning bills of interest in the legislature. You can watch the full discussion here: 9 10 25 WS 2026 Returning Bills of Interest

  • This week:

    • On Tuesday, September 16th at 6pm, there is a Clark County Council meeting. No agenda items of note other than the Clark County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee is looking to change its bylaws to expand the committee to match similar groups in the area, as well as add a youth member! Open public comment is also available at this meeting, which is an opportunity for you to testify about any subject.
    • On Wednesday, September 17th starting at 9am, there are 3 back-to-back very important meetings:
      • A joint retreat with the Clark County Council and the cities to discuss the 2025 Comp Plan Update.
      • A work session on the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process.
      • A work session on the Parks Fee Program Update and Fund Recovery Plan, related to the Sustainable Parks and Nature discussion about addressing the severe parks deficit in Clark County.
    • On Wednesday, September 17th at 1pm is Council Time, in which DNR Trust Lands Tour Recap is on the agenda.
  • Commission/advisory board meetings this week:
  • Other happenings:
    • Climate Planning development: At a recent work session, the Clark County Council was asked for guidance on setting the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target for a draft of climate policy recommendations that will be presented to the public for feedback. They were presented three options:
      • Option 1: Default statewide target (most conservative option), net zero by 2050. Staff recommended this as a placeholder for the draft.
      • Option 2: Net zero by 2045. More ambitious.
      • Option 3: Net zero by 2040 (matching the City of Vancouver. Very ambitious. Staff noted that Option 3 can create more of a sense of urgency and provide more near term benefits, such as better air quality sooner.

        Councilors Little, Yung, and Belkot (Fuentes not present) directed staff to use Option 1 for the draft (Chair Marshall wanted Option 2, while no one supported the most ambitious Option 3); however, their reasoning made it clear that they were in support of this being the ultimate GHG reduction target—not just the target to be used for the draft. If you want to see the council choose a more ambitious GHG reduction goal for Clark County, you’ll need to make sure they hear from you! Easy contact form available here: https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/write-councilor  We’ll keep you posted on what’s next for public participation in the climate planning process.

    • Legacy forests: While many recently celebrated a big announcement regarding forest preservation from Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove, experts/advocates have come out to call it a betrayal. According to the Washington Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, Upthegrove’s new forest policy “green lights logging of 29,000 acres of legacy forests.” You can read their statement here: https://wlfdc.org/so/52PZp7nmO?languageTag=en&cid=7e759528-86c1-4fb8-931f-3443127032c9

      We at FOCC have confirmed that Upthegrove’s current plan will ensure the death of Turnover, Dendrophobia, and potentially more of Clark County’s remaining legacy forest areas, despite clear, abundant opposition by our community and our own Clark County Council. We are following these developments and will keep you updated.

See you next week!
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