Growing Ridgefield strives to avoid pains

All that growth requires a substantial investment in infrastructure. What has the city done so far to manage the growth, and what are the plans to keep up with it while Ridgefield aims to become the hub of north Clark County?

Building infrastructure

In the past two years, Ridgefield has added 8 miles of new roads, 16 miles of new sidewalk and 4.4 miles of new water lines. One way the city has increased and improved its infrastructure is by leveraging credits to get developers to build more than the minimum.

“A lot of the roadways are built by new development,” Stuart said. “One hundred percent of internal roadways are built by the development itself. That is part of their requirement. Beyond that, through frontage improvements and other proportionate charges to new development, they end up building and paying for about 60 percent of the cost of every road in Ridgefield.”

Ridgefield’s city council raised traffic impact fees by 25 percent last year, and raised school impact fees by 25 percent in January.

Dean Maldonado, owner of FDM Development, said it was the right move and the fees are a “perfect regulation.”

“It (irks) me when developers come in and don’t pay for anything,” he said. “We should be paying our fair share. Growth is hard for everybody.”

Maldonado is the developer of the first phase of the Discovery Ridge project at 45th Avenue and Pioneer Street, which will be anchored by Rosauers, the new grocery store expected to open in early October. It’s a four-phase plan. The first phase, which is under construction, will include Rosauers, a credit union and fast-food restaurant.

As part of the development, FDM offered to build improvements to Pioneer Street and Northwest Royle Road. The plan is to expand Pioneer into a four-lane road from South 35th Place to east of the new grocery store. Royle Road will also be widened due to the work.

“The city did all of the design for the widening,” Stuart said. “We’re working with developers to have them take the lead to build it, because they can build it less expensively than we can, and they can do it quicker.”

Ridgefield officials are also looking into adding another direct entrance to the city. Currently, the most direct access to Ridgefield’s city center is by taking Pioneer Street from Interstate 5. However, residents remember the traffic backups in 2016 after a January landslide turned Pioneer into a one-lane road with a slower speed limit until April. Stuart said it’s a legislative priority for the city this year to partner with state officials to get funds to study a connection from Hillhurst to the 219th Street interchange.

“It’ll provide better access for that entire south Ridgefield area to be able to connect without everybody funneling through the same corridor,” Stuart said. “It will take pressure off the corridor. It also will take pressure off of the county roads in that area.”

Changing Hillhurst Road

Perhaps no part of the city is in the midst of bigger change right now than South Hillhurst Road. When brothers Larry Bartel, now 70, and Peter Bartel, now 66, grew up on the street, it was full of farmland and open space. Now, the living room window of their mother’s house looks out onto the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex.

“It looks like a lot less work,” said Larry Bartel, former fire chief for Fire District 12. “I would’ve preferred to see it stay farmland, but you can’t farm in Clark County anymore. There are too many regulations. I’m much happier it turned into this than a housing development.”

The Bartel family has owned farmland along Hillhurst for more than 100 years, starting with more than 200 acres. They milked cattle and grew strawberries, hay, oats and potatoes. They still have employees who farm the remaining land, and 12 family members live on it in separate houses.

They sold some of their land for what has turned into the school district’s new 5-8 campus and the sports complex, which is a joint project between the city and school district and will open for youth sports this spring and a collegiate summer baseball team in June.

Clark County Fire and Rescue Chief John Nohr said his department is in the process of purchasing land on Hillhurst to move its station from downtown Ridgefield. He expects it to take about three years to relocate.

When Nathan McCann describes the future of South Hillhurst Road, he packs in so much Americana it sounds like a description of a long-lost Norman Rockwell painting. McCann, the Ridgefield School District superintendent, envisions firefighters watching kids play baseball, with schools as the backdrop.

“Bring the apple pie and you got this thing complete,” he said.

Currently, Hillhurst development has centered around homes and the school district. The district’s new 5-8 campus opened this school year and the high school is undergoing some expansion work thanks to a 2017 bond. On Tuesday, voters will decide on a $77 million bond, which, if it passes, will fund a new K-4 elementary school, more high school expansion, covered play areas at all elementary schools and heating and cooling upgrades at South Ridge and Union Ridge elementary schools.

McCann said the district is projected to add 1,422 students by 2022, which is roughly a 45 percent increase in enrollment.

“We’re trying to balance meeting immediate needs with having a plan in place for expected growth,” he said. “We have to keep an eye toward district build-out over the next 20 years.”

The district’s growth plan includes another phase after the upcoming bond that would see Ridgefield add another K-4 school, 5-6 and 7-8 buildings and a small specialty or alternative high school.

Ideally, McCann would like to see that specialty or niche high school located on Clark College’s upcoming Ridgefield campus, or a joint program between the school district and Clark College. Stuart said getting state funds to start construction Clark College’s Ridgefield campus is a big priority for the city this year. Both the city and school district are optimistic about what bringing Clark College to north county will mean for Ridgefield and the city’s residents.

“Having an educated, trained workforce is everything for our employers,” Stuart said. “They’re lacking right now. To be able to have that resource for our existing employers is huge. It’s even bigger for attracting new employers at the junction, large-scale, high-value and good-paying employers for this community. The catalyst is Clark College. The next big thing is those employers who will leverage those opportunities Clark College creates.”

If the city secures state funding, construction could start this year on the campus. Stuart said the campus is one of the most catalytic projects in the city.

Staffing issues

With all the growth, that means more plans and inspections for the city. Ridgefield has hired more staff to help with inspections and reviews, but Stuart said there has also been a conscious effort not to hire too many people.

“Building cycles have ebbs and flows,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we stayed lean so when the inevitable slowdown occurs we are not staffed so heavily we end up having to let a bunch of people go.”

Ridgefield recently partnered with La Center to hire a building inspector who splits time between the two cities.

Clark County Fire and Rescue hired a new fire inspector recently to help deal with the growth. The department started conducting more inspections during construction in 2018. Previously, firefighters looked at plans for new construction and then checked the buildings after construction was done.

“We chose to provide that service for the city to keep up with the growth and to make sure our firefighters are included in the process early,” Nohr said. “We would get asked about access or water supply, and some months later we would see a new business was open, but we didn’t get in during months of construction. This allows us to get into these complex buildings while they’re being built.”

Nohr said that helps with fire prevention education and for firefighters to know layouts of all the buildings around town.

While the city of Ridgefield is looking to stay lean, Nohr wouldn’t mind beefing up his department’s staffing. Clark County Fire and Rescue covers Ridgefield, La Center and Woodland. There are two stations in Ridgefield, one of which is constantly staffed with two firefighters.

“When we are able to, I’d like to move all of our rigs to three firefighters per day,” he said. “It’s more in line with national norms. It just isn’t supported by the income we have at this time.”

“You’ve got to get the infrastructure in place, and it’s got to be done right,” he said. “It has to be done for you to go to market. It’s expensive. It’s big dollars. You concentrate on those things. We don’t have the capital to do all things at once.”

While construction and growth might mean some headaches, Grening said it’s a necessary step to get where Ridgefield is heading.

“Road construction during the summer, it’s here and it’s inconvenient,” he said. “You’ll be waiting. We still have capacity. We’re building capacity as we go. We’re not locked into problems. It’s being managed well. We’re rapidly growing, and that comes with growing pains. There’s really no way around it.”