The future of a 20-acre swatch of rural land near the intersection of Northeast 219th Street and Northeast 10th Avenue has the cities of Battle Ground and Ridgefield crying foul.
The cities say a county plan to rezone two parcels to allow for commercial development is a “piecemeal” approach to planning and will ultimately hurt their ability to woo commercial development.
As more development extends south from Northeast 219th Street toward Northeast 179th Street in unincorporated Clark County, “we might as well roll up the carpet and say goodbye to Battle Ground,” Deputy Mayor Philip Johnson said at a Wednesday hearing before county commissioners.
Battle Ground has staked its future on accommodating new big-box stores, such as a newly opened Wal-Mart. The city views the county’s tactic of spurring growth by making concessions to developers as an unfair advantage.
Ridgefield shares that view.
On Wednesday, Janean Parker, Ridgefield’s city attorney, remarked that the planned rezoning that would allow for rural commercial development was incompatible with the county’s own policies. She called for a more robust evaluation of the area adjacent to I-5 and asked the commissioners to make that part of an updated comprehensive growth plan, which is scheduled to be completed in June 2016.
“The cities believe expanding (zoning) at this location, in sort of a piecemeal, marching-around-the-intersection method, is the wrong approach, and actually promotes sprawl,” she said. Washington’s Growth Management Act calls for reducing sprawl.
Despite hearing opposition testimony from city officials, commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with the zoning designation.
The county argued that a change to rural commercial would allow for a greater variety of uses and provide employment opportunities.
Talk of re-designating the zoning at the Duluth intersection has been ongoing for more than a year.
But the cities are concerned that the area will slowly morph into a rural center of commercial activity without being designated as one. To Battle Ground Mayor Shane Bowman, that means the county is positioning itself in direct competition with the city in its pursuit of jobs.
The intersection is roughly 8 miles from Battle Ground and about 3 miles from the Ridgefield junction. The property’s owners have no plans for it, but the county believes it could be well suited for a variety of employment-related office uses. It is the most restrictive commercial zone the county has.
Commissioner Tom Mielke said the county was reluctant to turn down jobs, and postponing a decision until 2016 could result in that.
“The concern is that when someone is ready to build (and you wait), they are going to go someplace else, and so will the jobs,” Mielke said.
The area is ripe for development, Commissioner David Madore said, because of the public investment in infrastructure in the area. Those projects include the increasing capacity at the sewer treatment plant and road improvements to Northeast 10th Avenue.
“We will do everything we can to support our small cities,” Madore said. “We will do everything short of squashing opportunities for people in Clark County.”
