Battle Ground city staff are considering adding Dollar Corner, a census-designated place west of city limits, into Battle Ground’s Urban Growth Area (UGA).
A UGA is an area that Battle Ground intends to incorporate into the city to accommodate an expected need for jobs or housing. The Dollar Corner area is roughly 640 acres and would recieve changes in zoning for future job growth if successfully incorporated into city limits, Battle Ground planning supervisor Sam Crummet said.
Under the Growth Management Act (GMA), Clark County requires cities to identify areas that would accommodate additional jobs and housing every 10 years. The currently developing 2025-45 comprehensive plan will address the next 20 years of growth. It currently estimates Battle Ground will need to plan for 5,604 additional jobs in the city.
Crummet told Battle Ground’s City Council at its March 4 meeting that the city can allocate more jobs by altering its growth boundaries.
“We’re going to show that we have capacity for 7,677 jobs [total], and we’re going to do that through an urban growth boundary expansion,” Crummet said. “The area where the city intends to expand is out towards Dollar Corner.”
Dollar Corner currently has parcels of land zoned for agriculture, commercial use and residential. Crummet said the city would consider rezoning some land specifically for job growth.
“It’s primarily [a] light industrial [and] office park type [of] district with some limited commercial uses that would support that district,” Crummet told the Reflector following the meeting.
The city currently has 330 acres of Meadow Glade, a census-designated area to the city’s southwest, in its UGA.
Crummet said that area would likely be removed from the UGA to justify expanding into Dollar Corner. Counties set the amount of land cities can include based on job or residential growth anticipated.
“The city wants to prioritize job growth over residential growth, and the Meadow Glade area is designated for residential growth,” Crummet said. “Many of the land parcels are already subdivided, and the potential to urbanize isn’t ideal.”
Crummet noted some property owners in the Meadow Glade area expressed little interest in being in city limits but could not recall their reasons. During the March 4 meeting, Crummet told the City Council that Battle Ground has done better than most cities in accommodating housing for future residents.
The county would need to agree to updating Battle Ground’s comprehensive plan before agreeing to place Dollar Corner in the city’s UGA. Once included in the UGA, the City could annex that land through petitioning. If 60 percent of landowners in the UGA agree, the city would incorporate that area into the city, adding roughly 640 acres to Battle Ground.
“Property owners are given the opportunity to participate through the entire process,” Crummet said. “They can always petition, either for or in opposition of potentially coming into an urban growth boundary. But our planning documents for the city always tend to drive what we think is best for accommodating our anticipated growth.”
Crummet said the city will give land owners and stakeholders several opportunities to share their thoughts on Battle Ground’s developing comprehensive plan. The city will soon have a web page where residents can learn more about the plan.
