Rural Industrial Land Bank Overview

 

One of the issues claimed by the petitioners is that the language in the Growth Management Act (GMA) requires that rural industrial land bank (RILB) sites had to have been established (in Clark County) by 2004.  The GMHB agreed with this claim and remanded the ordinances adopting the RILB sites back to the county.  The county appealed the GMHB decision to the Superior Court on Oct. 10, 2016.

Project Summary

The Council held a public hearing on April 5, 2016. The Council dismissed the appeal on the SEPA addendum and approved the Planning Commission recommendation without the changes proposed to the allowable uses list by the Railroad Advisory Board. The notice of adoption of the land bank was published on May 11, 2016.

An open house was held on February 17, 2016, to answer any questions about the project.  No new information was presented other than the Planning Commission recommendation.  The Planning Commission recommendation included additional uses as proposed by the Railroad Advisory Board, shown on the last slide of the open house presentation.

A work session with the County Council was held on January 27, 2016. The work session presentation can be found on the Council's meeting page. 

A public hearing with the Planning Commission was held on Dec. 17, 2015, for the purpose of taking public testimony on the rural industrial land bank project.  The Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend that the Council approve the application.

A work session with the Clark County Planning Commission was held on November 5, 2015.

An open house was held on October 29, 2015, at which all of the materials required by the Growth Management Act were reviewed and discussed.

Comments received at the open houses have been added to the respective open house dates below.

A ‘Notice of Intent to designate a rural industrial land bank’ and a ‘Notice of determination of significance and adoption of an existing environmental document’ were published on Oct. 7, 2015. 

The determination of significance includes the adoption of the following documents:

Addendum by section:

The addendum includes an environmental characterization of the application site, an alternative sites analysis, a SEPA checklist prepared by the applicant, and a de-designation analysis for the application site, Most of this information has already been presented at the open houses.  Comments on the addendum were due October 21, 2015.

An open house was held on July 29, 2015 to provide additional information about the application site and the environmental review process, and to introduce draft development regulations that apply to any development occurring in the land bank. Below are the materials that were presented and discussed:

A list of current allowable uses in Light Industrial (IL) districts and current development and performance standards can be viewed in Clark County Code Section 40.230.085.

Work sessions were held with the Planning Commission on May 7 and with the County Council on June 3.  The purpose of the work sessions was an update on the status of the project.    The presentation given was similar to the one given at the April 15 open house.

An open house was held on April 15, 2015 to inform the public of progress to date and to ask for comments. Below are the materials that were presented and discussed:

A number of draft documents have been prepared by BERK Consulting and their team. The first is an analysis of critical areas on the site. The second includes a list of criteria that make a good industrial site and an alternative sites analysis. The third is a de-designation analysis. Work has also started on the master planning process for the site.

An open house was held on January 28, 2015 to introduce the rural industrial land bank concept and to discuss the proposed rural industrial land bank application.

One of the requirements for establishing a land bank is the preparation of a master plan for the area. The then Board of County Commissioners adopted changes to the county's master planning requirements at a public hearing on December 16, 2014.
Adopted code language:

In 1996, the Growth Management Act (GMA), RCW 36.70A, was amended with provisions to allow major industrial developments to be sited outside of urban growth areas.  RCW 36.70A.365 allows counties to site major industrial developments where there is a specific development application involved.  RCW 36.70A.367 allows counties to establish up to two rural industrial land banks with the intent that they develop as industrial properties.

In February 2014, Clark County received an application for the establishment of an industrial land bank on two different sites.  The locations are north of the intersection of SR-503 (NE 117th Avenue) and 119th Street on 223 acres and 378 acres currently zoned for agriculture (AG-20).  The 223-acre site to the west of SR-503 is referred to as the Ackerland property. The 378-acre site to the east of SR-503 is referred to as the Lagler property. There is no specific developer, so the county is proceeding under RCW 36.70A.367.

 

Requirements to establish a rural industrial land bank:

there has to be an inventory of potential sites within urban growth areas made;
consultation with affected cities is required;
the site has to be master-planned;
the site has to have a programmatic level of environmental review; and
regulations for review and approval of industrial developments must be put in place. 

In addition, because the parcels in the application are zoned for agriculture, a de-designation process is required, because by county code any land in a rural industrial land bank will be zoned for light industrial (IL) uses. A list of allowable uses in light industrial (IL) districts can be found in CCC Section 40.230.085-Employment Districts.

Project contact
Oliver Orjiako, Director, Community Planning
564.397.4112
oliver.orjiako@clark.wa.gov

Documents

Rural Industrial Land Bank Planning Area Map