Clark County to hold open house on agricultural lands study amid requests to rezone for residential
Clark County residents have one last opportunity to learn more about an agricultural lands study to be included in the county’s 20-year growth plan update.
The open house will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Battle Ground Community Center, 912 E. Main St. (Registration at bit.ly/2025CPAgReg2 is suggested.)
Those attending the open house can learn more about the update process, the purpose of the resource lands study and the methodology used, ask questions of staff and learn how to submit comments.
As part of the update process, the county has received dozens of site-specific requests for land use and zoning changes. This includes requests from cities like Ridgefield and La Center, as well as developers, builders and property owners, to convert lands currently zoned for agricultural use to residential lands.
Before resource lands — mining, forestry or agricultural lands — can be dedesignated and rezoned, the state’s Growth Management Act requires the county complete a resource lands study. The last comprehensive agricultural resource lands study undertaken by the county was in 1994 when the growth plan was initially adopted.
Starting around the end of 2024, the county council spent months debating whether there was time to complete an agricultural resource lands study and consider the submitted change requests by the Dec. 31, 2025, deadline set by the state. Prior studies for mining and forest lands took two to three years to complete.
In July, the council approved a $155,000 contract with Portland-based consultants ECOnorthwest to complete the study, which will focus on land within the unincorporated areas of the county, outside of current urban growth areas.
ECOnorthwest is expected to complete the study by Nov. 4. Because the county will have to review the findings from the study in a public meeting, then complete the growth plan update — which also requires public meetings — the county will miss the Dec. 31 deadline. The growth plan update is now expected to be completed by early June 2026.
