I always read the stories in The Columbian dealing with housing, but I’m having difficulty reconciling one of the numbers in a recent story (“Affordable housing vs. Climate: Code creates clash of crises in Clark County,” The Columbian, April 9).
The article states: “Clark County will need 103,475 additional units” over the next 20 years. Where, exactly, are this many units going to be placed? Between zoning restrictions, protected agricultural areas and wildlife habitats, incompatible spaces for building, etc., it seems like this is a virtual impossibility.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2021, there were 201,116 housing units in the county. Based on the growth estimates, we would need roughly 50 percent more units than we currently have to meet the projected need. It seems to me that there isn’t sufficient vacant land suitable for building in the county to increase housing units by this amount.
Is this an elephant in the room? It’s one thing for the state to express we need “X” amount of new units, but if there’s no place to put them, the number is completely unfeasible and therefore irrelevant on a practical level.
