Clark County’s 20-year growth plan is on hold after a local political activist filed a referendum petition targeting the policy.
Christian Berrigan, state committeeman for the Clark County Republican Party, filed a petition Friday to suspend Clark County’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan update. The county council approved the final growth plan update on June 28 after several years of work.
Berrigan, who did not return a request for comment, submitted 137 valid signatures to the Clark County Elections Office, Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber said Tuesday. Under the county home rule charter, it takes only 100 valid signatures to set the referendum process in motion.
The next step will be for the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office to write a proposed ballot item. Berrigan will then be tasked with collecting 19,351 signatures — 10 percent of the county’s votes cast in the last gubernatorial election — within 120 days to get the item on a general election ballot.
Plan suspended
Washington’s Growth Management Act requires some counties, including Clark County, to adopt comprehensive growth management plans. According to the Municipal Research and Services Center, ordinances adopted under the GMA are not subject to referendum. But until a Clark County Superior Court judge weighs in, the comprehensive plan is, for now, suspended.
In public comments made to the Clark County council, Berrigan supported Alternative 4, the zoning plan written by Republican Councilor David Madore. That controversial plan would have allowed rural residents to subdivide their property into smaller lots.
The county council ultimately ended up adopting what was branded as a compromise: parts of Alternative 2, a staff-developed zoning plan allowing some rural landowners to subdivide their property, though not to the extent of Alternative 4.
Owners of forest property zoned for a minimum lot size of 40 acres can now subdivide to 20 acres, while those with agricultural property zoned for a smallest lot of 20 acres can subdivide to 10 acres. Some rural housing parcels zoned for a minimum lot size of 20 can be subdivided to 10 acres.
However, rural property owners can’t subdivide as long as the plan is suspended.
Community Planning Director Oliver Orjiako acknowledged the irony.
“I’m not sure that is what the filers of the referendum intended,” he said.
The referendum petition also prohibits the cities of Battle Ground, La Center and Ridgefield from processing annexation requests for property brought into their urban growth areas in the comprehensive plan, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Chris Horne said.
“The people it’s going to impact the most immediately will be the cities or any person that wants to seek to annex based on the comp plan,” he said.
Authority in doubt
And there’s still the question of whether a referendum on the comprehensive plan is possible.
“Any ordinance adopted pursuant to the GMA is not subject to the power of referendum, because the legislature specifically delegated the power to act under GMA to the legislative authority of a city or county and not to the corporate entity,” according to the Municipal Research and Services Center’s guide on initiatives and referendums.
Clark County’s home rule charter clarifies further, saying ordinances required by state or federal law — like the Growth Management Act’s requirement of a comprehensive plan — are not subject to referendum.
The Clark County council could request a review to determine whether the petition is a legal referendum or not.
This is the second referendum petition Berrigan has filed this year. In May, he petitioned to overturn the county’s rules of procedure in protest of the council’s decision not to adopt Robert’s Rules of Order. Until it’s resolved, those rules are suspended and the county operates under its previous rules, which also don’t include Robert’s Rules.
Berrigan has until Oct. 15 to collect 19,351 signatures in that matter, Garber said. It would then appear on the Nov. 2017 ballot.
