Discussions on how to allow farming operations to host events in potential competition with wineries across Clark County are set to resume.
During a Aug. 16 work session, the Clark County Council heard from Clark County Community Development Director April Furth about an application for residents to participate in a “Rural Event Center/Agri-Tourism Task Force,” according to a document presented to staff.
Owners of farms, wineries and landowners who are not part of either industry will comprise the task force. Later, the council agreed to have some sort of institutional aspect represented, be it the Farm Bureau or the Washington State Extension Office.
The county brought the application before the council to ensure that the county was “on the right path” for what the council wanted to happen, Furth said. She said the group would be a “very dedicated task force with a very focused goal,” with up to five monthly meetings once its membership was solidified.
Councilor Gary Medvigy noted that talks to handle county code on rural event centers have existed for years. He said wineries, who currently have allowances to host events under county code, have greater opportunity compared to small-scale farmers and business owners in rural zones.
“The whole reason for this inertia is to kind of even out and give fairness, equity, to small farms in general,” Medvigy said.
Furth explained the reasoning for including the three groups was current small farms being affected, the impact that code changes would have on existing wineries, and residents with neither association who might also be affected.
“What I was trying to do is get a well-rounded task force with everybody’s voice being represented,” Furth said.
Councilor Sue Marshall, who runs a farm herself, felt the task force solicitation was on the right track. She said she has been talking to farmers, winery owners and the Washington State University Extension Service.
Initially, it seemed a fix could be fairly simple, but through those dialogues the issue appeared to be more complex.
“I think this is very good to have the stakeholders involved early on to frame things up, and then draft the code and open it up to the full public to comment on it,” Marshall said.
One risk to allowing more event-center type business out in county land is a potential change in the land use.
“We just have to be careful how wide we open that aperture so that we don’t turn our rural area into [a] commercial area,” Medvigy said.
The council agreed on bringing industry expertise into the fold for the task force.
The actual group might not start up for months due to funding, however. Furth noted the next time her department could ask for funds would be in November. She estimated running the task force would require $20,000 to $40,000.
Medvigy said existing American Rescue Plan Act funding might be applicable and used.
