Washougal council work session: comprehensive plan overhaul, new state mandates and tight county timeline outlined

Jessica Herzig, a consultant with DAO, briefed the Washougal City Council at a March 10 work session on a phased work plan for the city’s comprehensive plan update, laying out required code changes, likely topics for separate work sessions and a tight county-driven regulatory schedule. The presentation focused on four principal updates — land use, housing, economic development and a new climate element — and the secondary updates that will follow into the summer and fall.

Why it matters: The update must respond both to recent state legislative requirements and to Clark County’s schedule for a countywide environmental impact statement (EIS). These external deadlines shape what Washougal must adopt and when; staff warned the council the timeline leaves little room for delay and that coordination failures at the county level could complicate local adoption before the end-of-year deadline.

Herzig said the “land use element’s getting a pretty big overhaul” and that the land use map and supporting policies will be revised to reflect population and housing targets. She described housing work as tightly linked to that land-use map and to two state bills she referenced by transcript text as “House Bill 11 10” and “House Bill 12 20,” which the city must address in its housing element. On the housing subject she said, “middle housing is a big workhorse for us to get at both the housing, just general housing, but affordability as well.”

The presentation listed specific code areas likely to change or be reviewed alongside the element updates: zoning and land-use definitions; project review procedures; subdivision rules (including a new “unit lot subdivision” approach discussed in the meeting); parking minimums tied to housing type and targeted affordable and senior housing; and system development charges/impact fee recalibration to reflect unit size or trip generation.

On climate, Herzig and the consultant team described the scope required by the legislation they cited (recorded in the meeting as “House Bill 11 81”): two main sub-elements (greenhouse gas emissions reduction and resiliency), a greenhouse-gas reduction analysis that will consider vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and multimodal improvements, and a resiliency component that maps local flood, fire and smoke vulnerabilities. The city’s climate work is being coordinated with Clark County and a local climate subcontractor, Cascadia; Herzig noted the city has convened staff sessions with community development, public works, fire and police to identify local vulnerabilities and potential implementation measures such as building-performance standards, EV charging, tree-canopy protections and updates to critical areas regulations.

Transportation and utilities capital plans will be updated after the council selects a preferred land-use alternative because infrastructure lists and funding depend on future land-use assumptions. Herzig summarized that the transportation update will add multimodal level-of-service measures, identify project priorities and examine funding strategies (impact fees/SDCs, grants, TIF, federal/state funding) while utilities updates will test serviceability of land-use alternatives for water, sewer and stormwater and recast impact fees to be proportionate to unit size or impact.

Timing and county coordination were emphasized as critical constraints. Key schedule points discussed in the meeting (as stated by staff): the county draft EIS is expected in June (with a 30-day public comment window that staff said ends June 30), the county’s tentative date to select a preferred land-use alternative was listed as August 19, a final EIS publication date noted as October 16, and a likely compact schedule of local hearings in November and December so Washougal can complete SEPA and adoption tasks before the end-of-year periodic update deadline. Herzig warned the council that any delays at the county level — for example, over agricultural land analysis — could make that schedule unrealistic and could expose jurisdictions to legal or funding risk if state deadlines are missed.

Council members asked substantive follow-ups during the session, including questions about cottage housing and incentives, parking minimums for low-income and senior housing, the unit-lot subdivision approach, and how private CC&Rs interact with middle-housing requirements. Staff responded that some issues (for example, code incentives and parking minimums) are implementation choices to be examined and that certain state mandates (as discussed in the session) could take effect by the state’s model code if Washougal does not adopt its own local provisions by the stated deadline.

Next steps presented to the council: the public-comment period for land-use alternatives closes the week following the meeting; a joint council/planning commission workshop is scheduled March 24; planning commission hearing April 9; and a council hearing on April 14 to select a preferred land-use alternative that will guide the sequence of element- and code-updates described in the work plan.

The presentation named several subject-matter teams and partners — DAO (consultant), Community Attributes (housing and economic analysis), Cascadia (climate specialist) and Clark County (regional coordination) — and flagged likely future council work sessions on each primary element and associated code packages. No formal votes were taken during the work session.

The council did not take action at the conclusion of the work session; staff will return with the next joint workshop and element-specific briefings as scheduled.