In taking a step to preserve the 78th Street Heritage Farm, Clark County councilors have done more than protect a piece of local history. They also have better positioned the farm for a prosperous and meaningful future.
Councilors this week approved a conservation covenant for the 79-acre site, along with the adjacent Hazel Dell Community Park. As Clark County Council Chair Gary Medvigy said: “We’ve eliminated the possibility of homeless shelters, commercial development, residential buildings, residential homes. Now we can . . . amplify all the great programs that are already occurring there.”
Those programs have been beneficial for decades, providing a slice of rural culture in an area now surrounded by housing developments.
The site was established in the 1870s as a poor farm. In 1949, Washington State University turned the building and surrounding land into a research station, where agricultural scientists developed and tested crops. The property was returned to the county in 2008 and is now home to WSU Clark County Extension, community gardens, crops to benefit Clark County Food Bank, a juvenile justice restorative garden, and more.
Along the way, having a rural swath of land in the urban area has become increasingly anachronistic. That has led to questions about whether the people of Clark County would be better served by development that increases the housing stock or provides office and manufacturing space while bolstering the tax base.
But many of those people have made clear their desire to maintain the 78th Street Heritage Farm.
Councilor Sue Marshall said during a meeting Tuesday: “At previous council meetings, when there was uncertainty about Heritage Farm, or the prospect of some corporate headquarters being located there, the room was full. It really is a tribute to all of those folks for their advocacy to get us to this point.”
The question now is: What comes next?
Heritage Farm has received historic designation on the national, state and county levels. In 2014, a National Historic Preservation district overlay was established for the Clark County Poor Farm’s historical use.
While preservation of that legacy is valuable, county councilors also have a duty to optimize the use of the land. As The Columbian wrote editorially in 2020: “There is no shortage of ideas for endeavors that could be both compatible with and possibly lucrative for Heritage Farm. For instance, according to the website Small Business Trends, certain herbs and spices such as lavender, basil, ginseng, saffron and cilantro can be good revenue producers without requiring much space. Or perhaps one or several local farmers could rent space to raise chickens and/or ducks to sell fresh eggs.”
There are other ideas, as well, and they require examination from experts in farming, farm education and land-use policy.
According to Kevin Tyler, Clark County Public Works lands manager, the covenant “protects the 78th Street Heritage Farm, including Hazel Dell Community Park, for their natural features and farming history in perpetuity.”
Perpetuity, however, does not mean forever; it means for no fixed amount of time. Unless current programs are continued and expanded, some future county council is likely to revisit the possibility of turning the farm into a housing development or a warehouse.
The current council has taken an important step toward preserving a piece of Clark County’s history and providing assurances about the future of the land. But the work is just beginning.
