Battle Ground City gets update on 2045 comprehensive plan, housing targets and new climate requirement

The Battle Ground City Council heard a status update May 5 on the city’s comprehensive plan update, including how the plan must meet Clark County housing and job targets and a newly required climate element.

The update was given by Ben Hahn of Burke Consulting and Planning Supervisor Sam Premitt, with staff member Kristen introducing the presentation. Hahn described the comprehensive plan as “a 20‑year, guiding document” and said the consulting team is coordinating with Clark County and the Office of Financial Management to show where growth can be located.

The nut graf: the city must show how it will accommodate county‑allocated housing and job growth through 2045 while meeting new state law requirements for a climate element. The climate element is funded by a Washington Department of Commerce grant and will include both resilience (evacuation routes, emergency management) and greenhouse‑gas reduction subelements, Hahn said.

Hahn said the plan update will integrate recent local work — the 2021 land use master plan, the 2021 housing action plan and the 2022 parks, recreation and open‑space plan — and that Burke Consulting is preparing a land‑capacity analysis to demonstrate whether the city can meet its county targets within the existing urban growth boundary. He also listed the elements the comp plan will address: land use, housing, capital facilities, utilities, transportation, parks and open space, environment (including the Shoreline Management Act), economic development and a climate element required by a recent state bill.

Council members and staff discussed how the climate element interfaces with the county growth process. Deputy mayor Bowman asked whether the county weighs climate when allocating lands for jobs; Hahn said climate strategies factor into the element but that state policies and other regional work already influence local emissions outcomes. Sam Premitt added that trails and multimodal connections — an item citizens repeatedly requested in outreach — are a specific focus because they reduce driving and fit climate goals.

Council members pressed technical points about where growth would be allowed. Hahn and Premitt described the city’s preferred growth alternative (based on the 2021 study) that targets job growth toward Dollar’s Corner and would accommodate most residential growth inside existing city limits. Council members asked about specific areas discussed in the study, including Meadowglade, Tukes Mountain (water‑tank area) and possible site‑specific requests near the city edge. Premitt said some parcels on Tukes Mountain and other site‑specific requests are included in the maps and that the capacity analysis may show the city needs additional acreage.

On the county allocation, Hahn said the initial Clark County allocation requires Battle Ground to accommodate 6,975 housing units between 2023 and 2045, broken down by area‑median income bands. Hahn said those numbers are a starting point in negotiations with the county and that the allocation is still under review.

Council discussion also covered middle‑housing typologies, accessory dwelling units and density. Hahn said duplexes, townhomes and fourplexes are already allowed in many zones and that the city is not under a current state requirement to adopt new middle‑housing ordinances beyond what state law mandates. He explained that lower‑density zoning (single‑family) typically serves higher AMI households, while increased multifamily density is more likely to produce lower‑cost units, and that accessory dwelling units can serve low‑to‑moderate incomes because of their smaller size.

Council direction: members indicated support for the consulting team to continue with the preferred growth alternative, to include several site‑specific requests (including some R‑3 options) for further study, and to coordinate with Clark County on the county allocation and the environmental impact statement process. Premitt said the city must complete the comprehensive plan update by December 2025.

Ending: staff emphasized that the comp plan update is in an interim stage — with a preferred growth alternative and alternative maps submitted to the county — and that the next work products will include the land‑capacity analysis, maps used for county review, and draft elements that reflect the public engagement themes (trees, walkability, placemaking and housing near existing infrastructure).