New Day at Daybreak as county OKs expansion plan

A colored map shows the possibilities: A large equestrian arena, a smaller covered arena, a practice arena and horse stalls.

Four miles of trails.

Two large group picnic shelters and eight small shelters.

A playground.

The only thing missing from Clark County’s $11.9 million plan to more than double the size of Daybreak Regional Park?

The $11.9 million.

County commissioners voted 3-0 on Tuesday to approve the Lower Daybreak Regional Park master plan, acknowledging that there’s no funding in sight but recognizing that formally adopting the plan opens up the possibility of receiving grants for the project.

Talk about developing the 112-acre site on the south bank of the East Fork of the Lewis River started in earnest in 2008. The Columbia Land Trust bought the property, north of Northeast 259th Street and west of 82nd Avenue, with help from the county in 2002 with an agreement it would one day donate the land to the county.

Regional park space has become a touchy subject with commissioners.

In April, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey released an assessment of how well the county does at providing services. Developing regional parks was flagged as a specific area in which the county was lagging. Regional park acreage stayed the same during the five years, 2005 to 2009, that Kimsey studied, keeping the county well below its goal of 10 acres per 1,000 residents.

Commissioners Steve Stuart, Marc Boldt and Tom Mielke all thought it was unfair to make a distinction among regional, community and neighborhood parks, with Mielke suggesting the county simply redefine what constitutes a “park.”

Numbers show the county has 5.4 acres of regional park spaces (such as Lewisville and Vancouver Lake) per 1,000 residents.

Not that the county hasn’t been trying to boost its numbers. But it has struggled to overcome cost overruns and funding disputes in a long-running effort to turn Camp Bonneville into a regional park. The 3,840-acre site in east Clark County served as an Army training ground and artillery range from 1909 to 1995.

The county is in the process of terminating its cleanup contractor.

Pat Lee, county lands manager, told commissioners on Tuesday that getting the master plan to expand Daybreak Regional Park in the books was an “exciting moment,” even though he knows that money generated from real estate sales (the county’s only source of funding for rural parks) has been spoken for in the 2011-12 budget. He said the park could be developed in phases as money becomes available, either from the county or from grants.

Before voting yes, Mielke made it clear that there won’t be anything built anytime soon.

“I know when we started this we didn’t have a dollar in our pocket, and I don’t think we have that dollar yet,” Mielke said.

He added that he hopes “we don’t find ourselves three years down the road with just a plan.”

Parks planner Jean Akers said after the meeting that volunteers have started habitat restoration work in some areas on the property, including along Manley Creek. That’s key, she said, because when the county does reach a point when it’s ready to submit plans for development review, the restoration work will be counted as mitigation efforts, alleviating what Akers said was some of the “permitting angst.”

Butch Reynolds, president of the Clark County Executive Horse Council, told commissioners Tuesday that the proposed arenas would be used heavily by the equestrian community.

“We’d like to see this go forward,” he said.

The council, which worked with the county on developing the plan, may also be applying for grants.

Erik Robinson contributed to this story.