Clark County planning staff on Oct. 16 told the county Planning Commission they intend to use a Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) metric to set multimodal level-of-service standards for active transportation facilities as part of the ongoing comprehensive plan update, proposing an LTS 2 target inside the Vancouver urban growth area and a more flexible LTS 3 for a small number of rural routes on the regional active transportation network.

The proposal, presented by Harrison Houston, a transportation planner with Community Planning, is intended to satisfy new requirements in state law (House Bill 1181) and changes to the Growth Management Act that direct local jurisdictions to adopt multimodal performance measures and inventory active transportation facilities. "LTS is a grading system that's based on a user's comfort and perceived safety or stress level, and it's supposed to capture how one might feel while they're using a facility," Houston said during the work session.

County staff and their consultant recommended LTS because it is already used by WSDOT and regional partners and is easy to map and visualize. Staff showed a systemwide LTS analysis for collectors and arterials and said it would be applied first to roadways inside the unincorporated Vancouver urban growth area (Vancouver UGA) and to two rural segments that are on the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council's (RTC) Regional Active Transportation Network: 70th Avenue and Northeast 10th Avenue. Highway 99 and similar high-speed corridors, staff said, typically rate as LTS 4 under current conditions and would require separated facilities (for example a shared-use path or physically separated bike lane) to reach LTS 2.

Why it matters: the standards will feed the 20-year Transportation Capital Facilities Plan (CFP). Projects identified to bring corridors up to the adopted LTS standard will be added to the CFP, increasing the county's project list and raising planning-level cost estimates. Houston told commissioners the county will then re-evaluate financing and may update traffic impact fees after the comprehensive plan is adopted. "Those... can help set community priorities and are meant to be used to track progress over time," he said.

Commissioners pressed staff on several policy and practical points. Some asked how the LTS goal should be balanced with car capacity and whether adopting LTS 2 everywhere would force road diets or require taking vehicle lanes. Oliver (planning staff) answered that the intent is to provide "balanced safety" and options for vulnerable users rather than a prescriptive lane-reduction mandate: "The goal is to look at safety ... provide options that are really safe for the traveling public." Commissioner Baker and others raised cost, stormwater and right-of-way concerns, noting detached separated facilities and additional stormwater work can substantially raise project costs in older corridors. Several commissioners asked for flexibility in standards where physical or environmental constraints make full LTS 2 design infeasible.

Staff explained regional and funding incentives that favor LTS 2: WSDOT's active transportation guidance and recent Complete Streets commitments encourage projects within population centers to meet LTS 2 when state projects exceed a $500,000 threshold, and RTC regional priorities favor similar performance. Houston said this alignment makes LTS-based standards a prudent approach for grant competitiveness, but he stressed the county does not yet have a final, countywide ordinance and that the proposed approach will be refined after selection of a land-use alternative and further modeling.

Technical approach and examples: staff described how the LTS grade integrates posted/target speed, number of through lanes, traffic volume and presence/type of pedestrian/bicycle facilities. They walked commissioners through three local examples: Northeast 40th Street (roughly 3,000 daily trips, no bike lane, intermittent sidewalk, currently LTS 3 for ped/bike), 60th/63rd Street (minor arterial, ~40 mph, ~9,000 daily trips, attached sidewalk and 5-foot bike lane; table inputs generally indicate LTS 3-4 without physical separation) and Highway 99 (high speed and volume, graded LTS 4 under current geometry). Staff also demonstrated an interactive map showing collectors and arterials color-coded by LTS (green = LTS 1-2; orange/red = LTS 3-4) and said the county focused analysis on collectors/arterials because those corridors are eligible for state and regional grant programs.

Next steps: staff said they will draft a transportation CFP project list that flags LTS 3 and LTS 4 corridors as candidates for improvement, estimate planning-level costs, and evaluate financing options in the spring after a preferred land-use alternative is selected and the regional travel-demand model runs are complete. If CFP project costs rise enough to affect affordability, staff said they will revisit assumptions and may adjust standards. Houston noted traffic impact fees (TIFs) were last updated in 2022 and that inflation and new projects would likely raise fees when the CFP is revised. "When we update our capital facilities plan, cost estimates change... and those cost estimates... are the basis for how those fees are calculated," he said.

Public outreach and related plan chapters: staff reminded the commission the County released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and is holding weekly public office hours on Thursdays, 4–6 p.m., through Nov. 20; an agricultural-land study is due Nov. 4 and will be presented to the County Council in a Nov. 12 work session. Separate brief updates were provided on proposed textual edits to several comprehensive-plan chapters: no changes to the Community Framework Plan or Shoreline Master Program; limited text edits to the Economic Development chapter to reference the climate element; and deletion of an obsolete subsection in the Annexation element.

What wasn't decided: the commission did not adopt final standards or a code change at the meeting. No formal vote occurred. Staff repeatedly described the current recommendations as a draft approach that will be refined as the county selects a land-use alternative, completes modeling, and develops cost estimates and financing strategies.

Ending: staff and commissioners agreed on the need for public outreach and flexibility. Commissioners urged that any final standards include exceptions or alternative compliance paths for constrained corridors, and staff said they will return with detailed CFP project lists, cost estimates and draft code language after modeling and financing analyses are complete.