Clark County staff recommended moving forward with Battle Ground’s request to expand its urban growth area west toward Dollars Corner while advising against urban growth area expansions sought by Ridgefield and La Center during a joint hearing Thursday, Jan. 8, on preferred land use alternatives tied to the county’s comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan is a long-range policy document required under the state’s Growth Management Act that guides how Clark County and its cities plan for population growth, employment, housing and land use through 2045.
Cities and counties each adopt their own plans, but city plans must align with the county’s decisions on urban growth areas, which set where future development can occur.
Clark County projects a population of 718,154 residents and about 269,000 jobs by 2045. The plan update has been delayed several months past the state’s Dec. 31, 2025, deadline after the County Council approved a $155,003 contract for a countywide agricultural land study in July. City leaders from Ridgefield and La Center had argued for the study, as requests to reclassify nearby agricultural lands could not be fulfilled without an updated county-wide analysis. The Clark County Council reviewed the study’s findings on Wednesday, Nov. 14. A previous story regarding the study’s findings can be read at shorturl.at/0Fr7t.
County staff presented two primary options for the plan’s land use direction, which were used to compare urban growth area (UGA) plans for different cities. Alternative 1 would keep all urban growth area boundaries unchanged.
Alternative 2 includes a series of case-by-case adjustments to specific city UGAs based on capacity analysis, agricultural land designations and the pending agricultural land study. Staff emphasized that their recommendations were made city by city and proposal by proposal within alternative 2, not as blanket approvals or denials.
Battle Ground’s proposal received staff support, combining westward expansion for employment with a contraction elsewhere in its existing UGA.
Battle Ground proposes removing Meadow Glade’s 330 acres from its UGA, largely because the area is residential, difficult to serve and already subdivided. In its place, Battle Ground wants to expand west into Dollars Corner, a census-designated area along state Route 502 spanning about 640 acres.
Planning Supervisor Sam Crummett previously told the Battle Ground City Council that the city would need to prioritize supporting new jobs over future housing developments. The Dollars Corner expansion would give the city room to accommodate job growth. Over the next 20 years, the city expects to add about 12,000 people, bringing its population near 37,200, and must plan for more than 5,600 new jobs. The UGA shift provides room for roughly 7,677 jobs.
“One of Battle Ground’s primary goals in this process is to expand its urban growth area to Dollars Corner for the purpose of accommodating employment growth,” newly appointed Battle Ground Mayor Eric Overholser told the County Council on Thursday said. “The study found that Battle Ground is deficient in employment lands.”
La Center is asking the county to expand its UGA to the north and southwest to create additional employment capacity on land currently designated as Agricultural Resource. County staff recommended against the request, noting that the lands remain agriculturally designated and that the agricultural land study does not yet support de-designation.
Bryan Kast, representing La Center, told the council the city’s job and housing capacity has been overstated and said revised modeling shows significantly fewer developable acres due to environmental constraints and land taken into trust by the Cowlitz Tribe near the I-5 junction.
“The city was surprised to see that the city’s allocations that had been developed in coordination with the county for months had dropped by 470 jobs and 301 housing units without any discussion or coordination with the city,” Kast said.
Kast said La Center supports preserving productive farmland but questioned whether the agricultural land study properly accounted for soil quality, water rights and current land use in the areas the city is seeking to add.
“Forcing the city to densify to meet growth allocations without expanding the urban growth area will permanently alter the feel of our community,” Kast said.
Ridgefield, meanwhile, is asking the county to expand its UGA to the north and southwest for additional employment and housing capacity, also on land currently designated as Agricultural Resource. Staff similarly recommended against those expansions under alternative 2, citing agricultural designation and countywide capacity.
City Manager Steve Stuart said Ridgefield’s growth strategy already emphasizes higher density, mixed-use development and preservation of open space, but still requires targeted expansion to meet long-term needs.
“The challenge is … how do you do it in a way that best preserves the small town feel and the connection with the natural environment that draws people in the first place,” Stuart said.
Stuart argued that several of Ridgefield’s requested expansion areas are already characterized by urban growth and surrounded by infrastructure, which he said should make them eligible for de-designation following further county review.
“If it is characterized by urban growth, under (Washington’s Growth Management Act), it cannot be zoned AG,” Stuart argued.
During public testimony, Jim Maul, who resides on a property included in Ridgefield’s preferred land use alternative, argued for its de-designation as prime agricultural land, citing its adjacency to urban infrastructure, roads and planned subdivisions. He said that the high soil quality noted in the AG study was overstated, arguing that half the property’s soil was dense and not suitable for crops or grazing.
“Unfortunately, the designation of the Maul property as prime agricultural land is not supported by factual basis,” Maul said. “The property is adjacent to urban infrastructure … (it’s) a donut hole completely encompassed by the city of Ridgefield, portions of the property are being considered for public use facilities, for example, a new fire station… Exclusion of the property from the thoughtful development considered by these plans is economically and socially detrimental to the City of Ridgefield and the surrounding area.”
While city leaders focused on growth capacity and future employment needs, the Clark County Agricultural Advisory Commission urged the county to slow down and avoid any de-designation of agricultural land during this comprehensive plan update. Representing the commission, Ruud van der Salm said members supported maintaining current agricultural designations until additional planning work is completed.
“There is no way to create new farmland,” van der Salm said. “Once farmland has been developed, it cannot be replaced.”
The commission recommended that the council refrain from de-designating agricultural lands based primarily on proximity to urban development and instead develop a clearer, legally defensible countywide process before making changes.
The commission said it supports tools such as transfer of development rights and purchase of development rights but wants those programs designed at the county level and paired with more analysis before any land conversions occur.
Ultimately, final decisions on the comprehensive plan and any UGA expansions rest with the Clark County Council, which will determine whether Battle Ground, Ridgefield or La Center can move forward with their proposed changes following completion of the agricultural land study.
The next joint hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. and will include additional public testimony. The session can be watched at clark.wa.gov/councilors/clark-county-council-meetings.
