As Yacolt continues to grow, Ian Shealy, the mayor of Yacolt, says he wants to keep growth minimal and for his small town not turn into a larger city while officials work on a 2025 Growth Management Plan.
Currently, the town of Yacolt has hired an engineer to assist in developing its growth management plan as is in the plan’s early phases. In November, the Town Council finalized the 2025 budget, which includes key pieces to assist future growth from road projects to lower-cost public safety measures.
Growth management
The 2025 Growth Management Plan will need to be completed ahead of the second quarter in 2025, Shealy said. The town is currently looking at growing at a small rate to keep the small, tight knit community intact.
“The town was able to get grant funding to hire an engineer to help us put together the whole plan. So it’s nice that we have funding to pay for it because the town has such a limited budget,” Shealy said. “We have a stakeholders committee that was put together, and it’s a mixture of town staff, the engineer, our public works director and then we’ve invited anybody from the community that wants to be a part of it because, obviously, any decisions on growth in Yacolt over the next 10 to 20 years need to be a public concern and not just a town concern.”
The committee is currently going over the first stages of everything involved in the plan. To start, Shealy said members have been inquiring about possible land to annex down the road.
“The way we kind of approached it was we put out a call to anybody in the surrounding area around the town boundaries that are landowners that would be interested in annexing over the next five, 10, 20 years,” he said. “We didn’t get a whole lot of response. We got a few people. So that’s kind of where you start this process, and then once you kind of go through the early stages of that, you move on to the other land that we might be able to annex if we need it for commercial use or residential use.”
Shealy said, according to county numbers Yacolt will need to accommodate roughly 120 more homes and 700 more jobs in 20 years.
“But I don’t see how that’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of commercial space out here. … The biggest concern that I see in our community is that our community likes the small town feel. So, not a whole lot of people want, including myself, to turn into a Battle Ground or a Ridgefield because we are a small community. It’s like a family out here.”
Shealy added that the town’s top priority in the growth management process is to keep what the public wants but to also be mindful of how to keep Yacolt healthy and growing.
2025 budget
Heading into 2025, Yacolt has two road projects budgeted. One project will improve a stretch of North Amboy Avenue and West Yacolt Road. The other project will improve West Hoag Street, Shealy said.
“We just got word on Monday and Tuesday that we got approved for funding on two road grants,” Shealy said. “So that’s huge for us.”
The biggest project will improve pedestrian access with bike lanes and sidewalk additions and improvements in the heart of the town at North Amboy Avenue and West Yacolt Road. Shealy said the town will pay for 5% of the work, while the state pays for 95% through the grants.
Other items in the 2025 budget include a heavy emphasis on curbing public safety concerns, Shealy said. The town will be adding security cameras throughout town in high-traffic areas.
“One of the biggest things that the council has heard over the last four years and what I’ve heard the year on council … is we need law enforcement, and there’s quite a bit of vandalism that happens in town out here,” Shealy said. “So we spent the last year going through multiple processes to find out what’s kind of the best long-term system for the town and what’s going to cost the citizens the least.”
Shealy added that the Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputy that patrols Yacolt has made a major difference on the community, but, for times the sheriff’s office doesn’t have a physical presence in the town, adding a camera system is the best option to keep a watchful eye in an attempt to curb vandalism and other crimes.
“He’s doing a great job,” Shealy said of the deputy who patrols the town. “He’s bridged a lot of gaps that I think the community felt, and he’s built a lot of relationships with business owners, the community, the town, the North County Little League. He’s done a really good job trying to reach kids.”
The closure of the Larch Corrections Center is still impacting the town as the loss of inmates has affected the Public Works Department. The town wants to add positions and a permanent building for the department as a solution. Shealy said the department will probably need more employees next year, which is hard on the town’s small budget.
“So we’re going to be pursuing different avenues through grants and possibly talking to the state during their budget seasons,” Shealy said. “... We’re going to be hiring a firm to help us with grant writing and to have a better line of sight so that when grants come available, we have more of a chance of getting them. And, they’re also going to be helping with lobbying the state during budget sessions for the state to help us try to get funding. So, hopefully, we can get some help and some funding through the state avenues this next year, which will then help fund the public works building and some other projects that the community needs quite a bit.”
