Clark County planning commission reviews draft climate element, flags legal and timing uncertainties

Jack Caroon, co-chair of the Clark County Planning Commission, opened the May 1 work session as staff presented a draft climate element that the county proposes to add to the comprehensive plan as “chapter 14.” Jenna Kaye, Community Planner for Clark County Community Planning, summarized the statutory requirements and the outreach and advisory process that produced the draft policies.

“The bill was passed into law in 2023, and Clark County is in the first wave of adopters of this legislation,” Kaye said, describing two required subelements—resilience and greenhouse gas emissions reduction—and a mandatory adoption deadline of Dec. 31, 2025. She told commissioners the resilience subelement must plan for hazards exacerbated by climate change, and the greenhouse-gas subelement must identify 20-year actions that reduce emissions and vehicle miles traveled per person.

Oliver (staff member) recapped the advisory process and praised the Community Advisory Group’s work, saying the task force “reached almost, consensus in 90 plus percent of the goals and policies.” He and Kaye described three advisory bodies that informed the draft: a 20-member Community Advisory Group (CAG), a 15-member Environmental Justice Coalition (EJC) that led community engagement with priority populations, and a Partner Agency Team (PAT) of technical reviewers from county, city, tribal and regional agencies.

Staff said outreach included four engagement phases in 2024, more than 90 activities and roughly 2,000 participants across the county. The CAG met 12 times between February 2024 and April 7, 2025, considered 156 items and reached unanimous support on 151 items, dropped one item, and left four items without unanimous support. The CAG’s recommendation, staff said, contains 32 goals and 123 policies organized into topic areas including health and well-being, ecological stewardship, transportation and land use, buildings and energy, waste management and county governance.

Kaye and staff outlined technical baselines and tracking requirements: Clark County’s greenhouse-gas inventory uses 2022 data as the baseline, staff said, and the county reported a net baseline of about 1.5 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions. The county must set interim five‑year greenhouse‑gas reduction targets and five‑year VMT (vehicle-miles-traveled) objectives, and must submit progress reports to the Washington Department of Commerce every five years as required by the statute.

Commissioners asked about several items staff flagged for follow-up. Commissioners discussed whether the county will set a more aggressive interim target than the statewide alignment to net zero by 2050 (the inventory and draft policies align with the statewide target cited as RCW 78.4502). Staff said they are discussing interim-target timing with the county council and expected to report back but did not expect final council direction before the June 5 Planning Commission work session. Staff also said they will advise commissioners if they recommend a compliance-driven policy change distinct from the CAG recommendation.

The group discussed Initiative 2066 (I-2066), a voter-approved measure restricting local limitations on natural gas appliances. Staff noted that a King County Superior Court judge found I-2066 unconstitutional in March and that the ruling is expected to be appealed; until appeals are resolved and until Commerce issues any implementing guidance, how building-and-energy policies can be applied remains uncertain. Staff told commissioners the CAG’s recommendations were revised after the initiative passed to be consistent with I-2066 as it stood at that time; any later staff compliance recommendations would be clearly identified as staff proposals rather than CAG recommendations.

Commissioners asked for clarification about definitions, equity and cost information. Kaye said the project team developed a working glossary with the CAG and will propose a concise glossary for the comprehensive plan. Staff confirmed they have high-level, qualitative cost and prioritization information from earlier analyses and said they will repackage that supporting information and bring it to future work sessions; they stressed that comprehensive plan policies are high-level guidance and that more detailed implementation and cost work will come later.

On measuring VMT and emissions progress, staff said the county and jurisdictions will coordinate with the Regional Transportation Council and WSDOT on VMT methodology and that Clark County’s consultant prepared the 2022 greenhouse-gas inventory for all jurisdictions (except small jurisdictions exempt from the greenhouse-gas subelement requirement). Staff noted some emissions associated with electricity use and vehicle charging will be measured based on local utilities’ reported fuel mix rather than assuming zero emissions for electrified uses.

Next steps and schedule: staff said they will present the countywide planning policies at this May 1 session and will return on June 5 to review the CAG-recommended 20-year county planning policies (the draft climate chapter). After Planning Commission briefings staff will integrate the climate element into the comprehensive plan document and move into the formal adoption process, including required hearings and council review. Staff also warned that failing to submit a climate element would place the county out of compliance with the Growth Management Act and could prompt legal challenges.

No formal motions or votes were recorded during the work session; the meeting concluded with staff and commissioners agreeing to continued review and follow-up briefings.