04/27/2026
I wanted to share the public comment that I just sent in for the Clark County Council Hearing on the Preferred Alternative for the Comp Plan Update.
For additional information, Friends of Clark County has put together incredible resources on their site that I will link in the comments.
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I've lived in Clark County since 2020, but I spent my summers coming up here since I was a kid. One of the reasons that we moved here was because of how wonderfully livable this area is and how close we are to some of the farms producing the best food in the Pacific Northwest.
The fact that I can drive 15 minutes and purchase a full diet CSA share is nothing short of remarkable.
Farmers in this region are already operating on razor-thin margins, facing rising input costs, labor shortages, and a land market that makes succession nearly impossible. When agricultural land gets absorbed into the urban growth boundary, it rarely comes back. Developers move faster than farmers can organize, and once that land is sold and subdivided, the infrastructure that supports a working farm — the soil, the drainage, the access roads, the neighboring operations — gets fragmented beyond repair. We're not just talking about open space. We're talking about the food system that makes this place worth living in.
There is no need, according to studies funded by the council, to expand the urban growth boundary. Doing so would be remarkably short-sighted, particularly in the face of the growing crisis around food costs, which will only continue to be exacerbated by the cost of fuel going up courtesy of the unnecessary war in Iran.
Frankly, it would also harken back to the last time the Council chose to vote against public interests and opinion. When the Clark County Council voted to approve the Chelatchie Bluff Surface Mining Overlay over widespread public opposition, the county was found in violation of state law, costing taxpayers an estimated $6–10 million in lost grants and loans before the council was ultimately forced to repeal it.
As someone who lives in the Ellsworth neighborhood, I'm excited about the direction of building up and filling in — developing the large, sprawling space the city already occupies rather than consuming the land around it. My husband and I are planning to add an ADU to our own backyard as soon as it makes financial sense.
The council must do the right thing and vote for Alternative 1.
