WOODLAND — In front of a packed room, Woodland’s planning commission voted to continue discussions on expanding the city’s urban growth boundary on a case-by-case basis.
The commission started discussing expanding the city’s comprehensive plan map at their December meeting, and were looking at six potential growth scenarios Thursday night. The discussions were partly spurred by eight applications the city received to amend the city’s comprehensive plan map or expand the urban growth boundary.
After a roughly four-hour meeting, the commission approved a motion from Commissioner Connie Taylor to hold individual hearings on all eight applicants, starting with those already in the city limits and following up with applicants in the current urban growth boundary before turning to those outside the current boundary. The commission will hold those hearings at their Feb. 21 and March 21 meetings.
The commission was looking at six growth scenarios:
• No growth or changes at all.
• Internal growth, where all growth will be accommodated through comprehensive plan designation changes for land already within the city limits.
• Partial applicant accommodation, where the city could choose to add some of the land requested into its urban growth boundary.
• Full applicant accommodation, where all applications are included in the urban growth boundary.
• City proposed boundary expansion, where the city will look at urban growth area expansion using “logical and practical approaches to eliminate boundary peculiarities,” according to information from the city.
• Woodland Bottoms planning, where the city will look at the practical implication of growth within the bottomlands, including planning for growth impacts that occur in Cowlitz County.
The commissioners voted on an option closest to the third scenario, but didn’t make a decision on what to actually present to city council yet.
Most of the 10-plus people who spoke during public comment were against large growth expansions.
Woodland resident Hope Koistinen quoted the city’s visioning portion of its 2016 comprehensive plan update, which stated “the city will maintain small-town community identity based around livable neighborhoods and quality schools while accommodating moderate growth.”
“Hundreds and thousands of homes is not moderate growth,” she said.
Benno Dobbe, owner of Woodland’s Holland America Flower Gardens, said he has some concerns about growth, but added that Woodland needs housing.
“Development on the west side of Interstate 5 will benefit the downtown area. It will make that area more attractive,” he said.
“Additional housing will result in an increase in business activities within the city limits, which will help Woodland’s tax revenues.”
Darlene Johnson, owner of Woodland Truck Lines, said the city should focus on adding more jobs before it looks to add more people.
“If there were jobs here that paid good money, industrial-type jobs, they would work here,” she said. “No one would want to go to Portland and pay a Portland income tax and drive in that awful traffic if there were jobs here. We need to have industrial growth. We need to have good-paying jobs in this area.”
A group of residents also submitted a petition with 620 signatures from city and county residents in opposition to scenarios three through six. The discussion has been a contentious one in the area. More than 15 minutes before the start of the meeting, the board room was standing room only, and more than 50 people stood outside in the halls trying to hear. Once the meeting started, some in the halls listened to a livestream on their phones.
Elaine Placido, director of community services for Cowlitz County, spoke at Thursday’s meeting. She said the department of building and planning recognizes that the housing demand is an important issue around the county. On July 11, 2017, the board of county commissioners declared a state of emergency in housing and homelessness.
“The county is not opposed to future development efforts that will expand housing options, choice and affordability,” she said. “However, it is important that future development is planned collaboratively with all stakeholders. In particular, we must carefully consider the interests of both city and county residents, and taxpayers.”
She also read off a list of 10 items Cowlitz officials would like responses to for further analysis to help with recommendations from county staff. Those included updated growth projections to determine amount of land needed, what residential densities are being proposed for the land to be included and if there’s existing land within the urban growth area that could be reclassified to accommodate growth.
Travis Goddard, Woodland’s community development director, said in December the city has a significant supply of vacant industrial and commercial land, and a shortage of residential land.
According to 2036 projections from the city, Woodland is expected to grow by another 3,400 residents and add another 1,300 homes. Currently, the city has a population of about 6,100 with roughly 2,200 homes, Goddard said.
The commissioners spoke delicately about the issues to the packed crowd, some of whom yelled out questions throughout the meeting while trying to understand all the details of the scenarios being discussed.
“We’re not trying to invade your land, your property, or ruin your quality of life,” said Commissioner Frank Occhipinti. “If it’s not done right, that can happen.”
