Clark County Planning Commission co-chair Jack Caroon opened a May 1 work session that focused on the countys draft climate element and related countywide planning policies, a chapter required under state legislation that the county must adopt by Dec. 31, 2025.

Jenna Kaye, Community Planning, summarized the statute and the countys work so far: "This bill was passed into law in 2023, and Clark County is in the first wave of adopters of this legislation," she told commissioners, emphasizing the element must address both resilience and greenhouse gas emissions reduction and follow guidance from the state Department of Commerce.

The county must create a new climate chapter for the unincorporated area that includes a resilience subelement and a greenhouse-gas reduction subelement. Kaye said the resilience work addresses seven climate-related hazards the county has planned for: extreme heat, drought, wildfires, wildfire smoke, extreme precipitation, flooding and landslides. For greenhouse gases the county must identify 20-year actions to reduce emissions and vehicle miles traveled per person while avoiding increases of emissions elsewhere in the state.

Why it matters: the Growth Management Act now includes a climate goal and House Bill 1181 (2023) requires jurisdictions over the specified size to adopt a climate element consistent with Commerces guidance. The county must also set interim five-year targets and align with the statewide goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 (RCW 78.4502 was cited during the presentation) and report progress every five years to the Department of Commerce.

What the county presented and where the input came from
The countys outreach and advisory process produced the recommendation that staff brought to the commission. Kaye said the project team and an Environmental Justice Coalition conducted more than 90 engagement activities in 2024 and heard from about 2,000 people. Three advisory groups informed the work: a 20-member Community Advisory Group (CAG) appointed by the county manager, an Environmental Justice Coalition (EJC) made of 15 community-based organizations, and a Partner Agency Team (PAT) of technical reviewers from county departments, cities and regional agencies.

Kaye said the CAG met 12 times between February 2024 and April 7, 2025, and considered 156 items. "They had unanimous consensus and support for 151 items," she said, and four items lacked unanimous support; staff will provide documentation showing votes and reasons for the dissenting views.

Baseline data and technical matters
Kaye reminded commissioners that the county completed a greenhouse gas inventory using 2022 data. The inventory showed local emissions dominated by on-road transportation (gasoline and diesel), building energy (electricity and natural gas) and tree loss related to agriculture, forestry and land use; county staff reported a 2022 baseline of about 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Kaye said jurisdictions will need consistent methodologies to track progress and that the inventory and future updates will serve as the countys baseline for measuring change.

On vehicle miles traveled (VMT) the county will coordinate with the Regional Transportation Council and state technical staff to develop regional VMT reduction targets and measurement methods. Commissioners raised questions about data sources and methods; staff said they will draw on state and regional traffic counts and modeled datasets and noted private-phone-derived datasets can be useful but are less consistent over time.

Legal uncertainty and Initiative 2066
Kaye flagged a state-level legal development that could affect building and energy policies. She read a key provision of Initiative 2066: "a county shall not in any way prohibit, penalize, or discourage the use of gas for any form of heating or for uses related to any appliance or equipment in any building." She told the commission that a King County Superior Court judge found I-2066 unconstitutional in March, but that decision is likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court and the timing of any final resolution is unknown. Kaye said the CAGs recommended policies were drafted to be consistent with both HB 1181 and I-2066, and staff will monitor the appeal and follow Commerce guidance on how to proceed.

Implementation, limits of county authority and cost questions
Commissioners pressed staff on interim targets (some cities are aiming for earlier net-zero dates), how costs will be considered and how the county can influence utilities and private choices. Staff emphasized that comprehensive plan policies are high-level and implementation steps will follow adoption; they said they have high-level prioritization and cost information that can be shared as supporting material but that specific implementation programs and cost-benefit work will come later.

Oliver (staff) noted the local history of climate impacts as context for the resilience work: "we have experienced severe flooding... It can go back to the 1996 flood," he said, as a reminder of local climate risks.

Next steps and deadlines
Staff told the commission they will return June 5 to review the 20-year county planning policies (the full CAG recommendation includes 32 goals and 123 policies) and are preparing materials for the formal adoption process. They said they are coordinating with the county council to set interim greenhouse-gas reduction targets and that Commerce requires jurisdictions to submit a completed climate element by Dec. 31, 2025. Staff also emphasized the five-year reporting requirement to Commerce.

Commissioners and staff identified remaining issues for future work sessions: final placement of some climate policies into other comp-plan chapters (for example, transportation policies into the transportation chapter), clarifying glossary terms such as "resilience" and "disadvantaged communities," and planning for implementation steps that respect the limits of county regulatory authority (for example, the county does not directly regulate utilities). The commission did not take any formal votes at the May 1 work session.

Ending
Staff reiterated that the draft climate element and CAG recommendation are intended to comply with HB 1181 and Commerce guidance, and that work will continue through public hearings, council direction on interim targets and the formal adoption process.