After hearing concerns from residents and Vancouver city officials, Clark County commissioners on Tuesday decided against opening up 270 acres northeast of the Clark County Fairgrounds for development.
Commissioners voted against a proposal that commissioners themselves had asked staff members to research and present.
The land east of Interstate 5, identified in the county’s comprehensive plan as East Fairgrounds, will remain in “urban holding,” a designation given to land within the Urban Growth Area to prevent urban development until urban services are available.
The East Fairgrounds area sits within Vancouver’s Urban Growth Area and the Discovery Corridor, which local politicians have been touting for the past decade as key to the region’s economic development.
The proposal, which had been green-lighted by county staff members who said a traffic study confirmed the area could be developed, had been to open up 240 acres that would be zoned business park and 30 acres that would be zoned light industrial.
Reasons for opposing the proposal varied.
Residents said they did not want the land to be taken out of urban holding unless it was going to be zoned residential or mixed-use; city officials worried that the land in the Discovery Corridor, which is supposed to attract businesses that offer family-wage jobs, might be wasted if released too early.
In a letter to commissioners, Laura Hudson, Vancouver’s director of Community Development, wrote that the East Fairgrounds area “is one of the last areas with larger undeveloped properties capable of addressing the adopted vision for the (Discovery) Corridor.”
Hudson encouraged county commissioners to wait for the Columbia River Economic Development Council to finish its strategic plan before opening up the land to development.
“There is no indication that a major development project is waiting for urban holding to be removed, and in fact, that is unlikely since the area currently has water, sewer and transportation infrastructure deficiencies,” Hudson wrote.
Last month, the proposal was unanimously rejected by members of the county planning commission.
The advisory board took issue with, among other things, “leapfrogging” over land around Northeast 179th Street, which remains in urban holding.
The county plans to upgrade 179th Street at Interstate 5 to reduce traffic congestion, but that work won’t start until 2012.
Residents who testified Tuesday objected to having the land designated as light industrial and business park. Most said that since they are stuck in the urban growth area, they would prefer residential development or mixed-use development.
Jim Carlson of Ridgefield said it appeared as if the commissioners were leapfrogging Northeast 179th Street because they didn’t want to deal with the headache of addressing traffic problems.
Steve Yochim of Ridgefield said neighbors want to choose what zoning they want to live in, and he said the county did not include residents in the planning process.
“We moved into this area 25 years ago … we do not want to look at office campus park,” Yochim said.
Ridgefield resident George Espinoza said that 90 percent of the property owners objected to the county’s proposal.
He said the county should be giving incentives to businesses to fill “vacant strip malls.”
Skipping over Northeast 179th Street just creates urban sprawl, he said.
“It makes absolutely no sense in the name of planning,” Espinoza said.
Commissioner Tom Mielke said he had mixed emotions about keeping the East Fairgrounds in urban holding, since it was identified in the 2007 comprehensive plan as land that would be set aside for jobs.
“We need jobs-producing land,” Mielke said, noting that Clark County has the highest unemployment rate in the state.
At the same time, Mielke said he didn’t want to be perceived as trampling on property owners’ rights.
Commissioner Marc Boldt said it’s obvious the proposal “needs to be put on pause.”
Boldt made it clear that the denial didn’t mean the land would be zoned residential. He said the county can take a look at that when it updates the comprehensive plan in 2014, but only if other land can be identified as prime sites for businesses.
Mielke and Boldt — Commissioner Steve Stuart was absent — asked Deputy Prosecutor Christine Cook what would happen if they denied the proposal, and she assured them they could bring it up again.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
