Asphalt plant battle leaves a mark

If a real estate zoning dispute could ever qualify as a "fiasco," it’d look a lot like the still-unbuilt asphalt plant in the heart of Brush Prairie.

A simple map change by county planners — cow pasture to heavy industry — exploded into an epic eight-year legal war in the little community south of Battle Ground.

The fight cost neighbors an estimated $80,000 and delayed a multimillion-dollar development for two entire boom-and-bust cycles. Even as county commissioners voted to approve the project in 2007, they half-sheepishly promised to do better next time.

"Next time" was this week.

Less than a mile from the asphalt site, just southwest of Brush Prairie, 200 acres of open land stretches along state Highway 503 and a county-owned rail line.

Clark County and a few grizzled veterans of the previous battle have just finished hammering out a new zoning plan for its eventual industrialization.

Commissioners approved the railroad zoning plan Tuesday.

It bans or restricts dozens of the heaviest industrial uses, such as the manufacture of tires, dye, or — of course — asphalt.

Other heavy uses, such as manufacture of aircraft or cement, would be allowed.

Industrial parks on the site will have to be ringed by a landscaped 12-foot berm, like the one finally agreed to around the Brush Prairie plant. Buildings will have to sit at least 30 feet from property lines.

Also, all tenants would be required to plug into the railroad.

People who worked on the new plan say they took lessons from failed negotiations over the asphalt plant.

"Instead of being reactive, we decided to be proactive and be part of the process early on," said Sam Kim of Brush Prairie, a leader in the anti-asphalt fight who helped draw up the railroad plan. "There’s been some very difficult discussions and conversations and so forth, but I think that in the end we came out with a fairly balanced document."

Eric Temple, another member of the four-man railroad work group and owner of the company that operates the railroad, also applauded the final compromise.

"I think it’s a model for how to do this," Temple said Thursday.

Others disagree.

"We had an opportunity to really learn from the Brush Prairie asphalt plant," said Ron Barca of Battle Ground, who sits on the county’s planning commission. "I don’t think we took the lesson to heart."

Barca predicted that when factories and warehouses arrive, neighbors will want wider buffers to protect their homes. In March, he cast the planning commission’s only vote against the new railroad plan.

Today, the land belongs to Lagler family, owners of the county’s biggest dairy farm.

"People see a working dairy farm that has every indication of being a thriving business," Barca said. "And they don’t understand that the county’s direction is to turn it into an industrial park of significant size and magnitude."

Dennis Lagler, who also helped with the railroad plan, said his family has no immediate plans to sell any of their land, and hasn’t sold anyone an option to develop it.

The rezoning might not even take effect if a Seattle-based slow-growth group, Futurewise, wins its legal challenge of the county’s growth plan.

"It’s a long process," Lagler said. "Could be years."

But Lagler, who lives in Brush Prairie himself, said he hopes one day to watch the railroad land fill up.

"The Battle Ground School District needs tax base in a big way," Lagler said. "It’d be wonderful if we got good industry out here that didn’t upset the neighborhood."

Kim, who works for Hewlett-Packard in Vancouver, said he, too, supports local jobs.

Brush Prairie residents don’t object to heavy industry nearby, Kim said. They object to heavy industry next door.

He blamed himself and other Brush Prairie residents for losing track of local politics when the asphalt plant’s industrial zone was first approved.

"We were asleep," Kim said. "We trusted our elected and appointed officials to look out for us. That was a total fallacy that we fell into. Certainly we will never do that again."

As for people whose rural homesteads surround the new railroad district, Kim said he’s not sure how much they know about the county’s rezoning plan.

"They would know if they’d been attending our meetings and so forth," Kim said. "But I don’t remember any of them attending."

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.