Skamania County commissioners interview Dan Lazio for planning commission seat

Skamania County commissioners on April 28, 2025, interviewed Dan Lazio for a vacancy on the county Planning Commission during a special meeting that began at 11:15 a.m. The board later met in executive session and made no appointment or public decision.

Lazio, who identified himself as a builder and developer, told commissioners he moved to Skamania County in February 2021 to develop property for his family and ran into repeated permitting and road-standard hurdles. "I moved to Skamania County in 02/2021. I bought some property, and I wanted to develop it for my family. And there was roadblock after roadblock after roadblock," he said. He described paying to upgrade an access road and seeking a variance that he said was not granted consistently across nearby properties.

The exchange focused on land-use rules, variance practice, lot-size policy and preserving the county's rural character. Lazio said the county should apply standards consistently and evaluate requests case by case. "If you give one variance, we should get variances across the board," he said in describing his experience; later he clarified that decisions should be situational and treated equally across contiguous properties. He told the board he would listen to residents and attempt to explain planning choices so the public understands trade-offs between density, infrastructure and rural character.

Lazio recounted a specific dispute over required road width. He said a neighboring development was built on a private access he described as 12 feet wide while the county asked him to improve his access to a 22-foot standard; he said engineers and other county staff inspected his work and some signed off while others delayed approval. He said the county ultimately permitted an 18-foot improvement but that the process required additional grading and expense. "The extra couple hundred thousand dollars I had to spend to cut that road, to gravel that road," he said, adding he would use his construction experience on the commission.

He also addressed policy questions raised by commissioners. On balancing economic development with preserving rural character, Lazio said he moved to the county for its rural quality and opposed large-scale denser development in many areas: "I don't want LA here," he said, describing concerns about infrastructure strain from smaller lot sizes. He said he supports affordable housing in appropriate locations but opposed across-the-board reductions in lot sizes without infrastructure planning.

On conflicts of interest and impartiality, Lazio said he would separate personal views from official duties: "You have to take your personal opinion out, and you take the opinions of friends out," he said. He also described a personal property landslide he characterized as a catastrophic event that involved EPA review and permits, and he said that confrontation with environmental opponents had been a difficult personal episode.

Commissioners asked follow-up questions about outreach, how Lazio would ensure all voices are heard, and how he would handle criticism. Lazio said he would listen, attempt to educate the public about trade-offs, and make decisions based on stakeholders' needs rather than personal preference.

The board noted there were two applicants for the seat and moved to executive session under state open-meeting law (citing RCW 42.30.110(1)(h)) to discuss qualifications; the executive session was scheduled to run until 12:20 p.m. The board announced that no decision would be made following the executive session. The meeting reconvened and adjourned at 12:22 p.m.; the board recorded a unanimous voice vote on the motion to adjourn.

Public comment was not taken at the special meeting; commissioners said members of the public could speak at the regular board meeting the next morning or submit written comments to the clerk of the board. No appointment or formal action on the planning commission seat was announced at the conclusion of the special meeting.