A home in the Green Meadows neighborhood sits on the edge of the Club Green Meadows golf course. (Photos by Ariane Kunze/The Columbian)
The Clark County council determined on Tuesday that it could do little to address the anxieties of residents of an unincorporated part of the county that’s slated to be annexed to the city of Vancouver.
For months, residents of Green Meadows, a sleepy neighborhood just north of Vancouver city limits, have turned up at county council and Vancouver City Council meetings to express concerns that the city’s annexation plans will hasten development and drastically change the area’s character. On Tuesday, more than 50 people showed up for a meeting on the topic that ended with a majority of the county council concluding its hands were tied.
“I don’t see how, legally, we can take action,” Councilor Jeanne Stewart said at the meeting.
Earlier this year, the city of Vancouver revived its plans to annex parts of unincorporated Clark County, which had been stalled since the Great Recession. The annexation plans include a 1,120-acre area that encompasses Green Meadows golf course. The golf course was built in the 1960s and it’s been a defining characteristic of the neighborhood that’s grown up around it.
Although the county’s comprehensive plan, which guides growth, designates the golf course as open space, it’s zoned residential, meaning its owners could build housing on it. The zoning designation would be largely preserved after the city annexes the area, which it could be on track to do by next year. Residents of Green Meadows worry that annexation will make development of the golf course into housing more likely given the city’s rapid growth.
“The bigger (the city of Vancouver gets), the more they want, the more they need and it becomes a spiral,” Dave Socolofsky, a resident of the area, told The Columbian after the meeting. He added that he was disappointed by the council’s lack of action and expected similar concerns from other residents of unincorporated Clark County to arise as the city grows.
Over the course of the hearing, county staff explained that there were few options legally available to the council. If the county wanted to rezone the area it could do so through an amendment to the comprehensive plan.
However, Community Planning Director Oliver Orjiako explained that the deadline for a comprehensive plan amendment to be considered next year was in September. He also explained that when the county rezones private property it’s typically done at the request of and with input from the property’s owner. So far, the owner of the golf course has expressed no interest in rezoning the property.
Alan Reese, general manager at Green Meadows golf club, told The Columbian after the meeting that the trust that owns the course has no plans to sell the property nor develop it into housing. He also said that the golf course would be doing more outreach to quell the concerns of nearby property owners.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christine Cook explained to the council that under state law a city can annex an area if it has signatures supporting the annexation from property owners who own at least 60 percent of that area’s property value. Cook said by the time the county approved a zoning change the city likely would have completed its annexation, as it had already met the signature requirement and had an agreement with the county to proceed.
“From a process standpoint, it’s out of our hands,” concluded Councilor Julie Olson.
But Socolofsky told The Columbian that many property owners in Green Meadows were required to agree to the annexation when they signed up for utility services with the city. He said that many property owners felt they had no real say in the annexation decision.
Councilor David Madore called the situation “exceptional” and was joined by Councilor Tom Mielke in pushing for the council to take action.
Cook cautioned that any formal action by the council could be seen as a breach or an amendment of its agreement with the city. She also said that the golf course’s owner might conclude the county was trying to control the property. But Cook said that Green Meadows residents could continue to push for the golf course to be rezoned after the city annexed the area.
“Those people will become citizens of the city of Vancouver,” she said. “And a local government ignores its citizens at its peril.”
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
