Eight years after it was first proposed, the controversial rezoning of more than 1,000 acres of land along the White Salmon River remains tied up in a legal battle that has reached the Washington State Court of Appeals.
Klickitat County has pursued a series of changes it says would better control expected growth along the river. Environmental groups Friends of the White Salmon River and Friends of the Columbia Gorge have said the proposal, which includes new residential zoning and smaller lot sizes, would lead to sprawl and threaten the sensitive watershed.
Attorneys on both sides made their case Monday in oral arguments during special hearings at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver.
Susan Drummond, an attorney representing Klickitat County, rejected the notion that the county is allowing rampant development without regard for the environment.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Drummond said. “The county has meticulously planned to improve environmental conditions.”
The rezone authorizes 259 new homes over a 20-year period, according to the county. The development would occur around Husum and BZ Corner, two rural centers along the river. But the numbers aren’t the whole story, said attorney Ralph Bloemers, arguing on behalf of the opponents. The county’s review had significant gaps, and it largely left the community out of that process, he said.
Klickitat County first proposed the change in 2007. It was later approved by county commissioners before taking a long, winding legal road to the state appellate court.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson handed a victory to environmental groups in 2013 when she ruled that Klickitat County did not follow required rules and proper review when it converted broad swaths of forestland to residential use. The county didn’t consider a reasonable range of alternatives, and illegally gave the right to individual landowners to up-zone their land to a level that constitutes “spot zoning,” Johnson ruled at the time.
But the Superior Court decided not to throw out the zone change, pending an appeal that the county later filed.
It could be several months before the appeals court makes its decision, said Nathan Baker, staff attorney for Friends of the Columbia Gorge. Opponents have asked the court to uphold Johnson’s ruling, and invalidate the rezoning itself. But there are a range of possible outcomes, Baker said.
“We are very hopeful that the court of appeals will affirm the lower court’s decision,” he said.
The White Salmon River has received heightened attention in recent years as it continues a closely watched evolution process. It was on the White Salmon that Condit Dam was breached in 2011, then removed in 2012. The dam’s removal dramatically altered the landscape immediately upstream by draining Northwestern Lake, and opened up miles of fish habitat for the first time in nearly 100 years.
