Battle Ground Eyes Dollars Corner for Future Job Growth

0:00This story was written by Tade Barker with the Reflector newspaper. Battleground is seeking to expand its urban growth area west toward dollars corner, while removing approximately 330 acres from the metal blade area. A move city planner say would better position the city to accommodate employment growth over the next 20 years. The proposed urban growth boundary changes are part of Battleground's comprehensive plan update and are now moving through Clark County's review process. Planning supervisor Sam Cromett said the dollar's corner expansion is the city's primary growth request for the 2025 comprehensive plan update. The city's proposed shift follows several years of evaluating where Battleground should accommodate future growth. Cromett said city planners determined metal blade was not the most efficient area for urban expansion because of its existing infrastructure and development patterns. Under the Growth Management Act, which is statewide planning policies that we need to adhere to, one of the major ones is to avoid sprawl Cromett said, so when we studied where we best should grow and this goes back years, we felt like metal blade was not the most efficient area to grow into because of lack of infrastructure and growth trends were not

1:03going in that area. The city also considered the character of the metal blade area, which includes larger residential properties. And the residents themselves didn't seem particularly excited about bringing on urban higher densities into that area, Cromett said. The city instead identified the dollars corner area as a better location for future employment growth, particularly following prior improvements to state route 502. The highway was expanded from two lanes to four lanes in 2016, while employment development has already began in the area under county jurisdiction. And there's already a hodgepodge of jobs growth in that area under the county jurisdiction. Cromett said, and it made sense for us to go in that direction to capture job growth. Cromett emphasized that an urban growth boundary does not immediately place the affected property under city jurisdiction. Rather, the boundary identifies areas where the city could potentially annex in the future. It doesn't mean the city has that property or is responsible for the roads and infrastructure in those areas. It's still county jurisdiction, Cromett clarified. He said the city has not previously provided infrastructure in the metal blade area, which was subject to some confusion in a recent

2:06Clark County Planning Commissioners meeting. We've never had any infrastructure in this area. Cromett said, we've never owned any streets or sewer systems in that area. The proposed expansion is primarily intended to address a shortage of land for employment rather than a shortage of land for housing. As part of its planning requirements for 2025 through 2045, battleground must plan for 6,979 additional housing units and 7,677 jobs according to Cromett. A city land capacity analysis found that battleground could accommodate its projected housing growth within its existing urban growth boundary, even with the proposed removal of metal blade acreage. The short answer is yes, we do believe we can accommodate that growth anticipated within our 20-year time frame with the lands we have designated, Cromett said. The analysis instead identified a shortfall in employment capacity. But what we did find was that there was a shortfall in employment lands, he said. So that's why we had to do our expansion because we had nowhere else in the city to accommodate jobs. The city envisions the dollar's corner area primarily as an employment center,

3:07with commercial opportunities along the state route 502 and 72nd Avenue corridors. The big picture vision is for battleground to provide jobs close to home. Cromett said, specifically to allow residents to hopefully find employment near their homes and avoid driving to either Vancouver or Portland or elsewhere for work. The area is already identified for employment oriented development through the city's west side employment zoning. We have zoning in place that would fit in there called west side employment and there's a minimum jobs requirement in that area. Cromett said, the city does not envision the area being dominated by low employment industrial uses. What we don't envision is, for example, large warehouses that wouldn't accommodate jobs. Cromett said, the city also wants to accommodate existing businesses and trades while creating opportunities to recruit larger employers. We've kept it, I would say, fairly broad market-friendly commercial, more along the highways in our expansion area, Cromett said, and then we do want to accommodate existing homegrown businesses and trades as well as be competitive in the region and even nationally and internationally to be able to have land to recruit and accommodate

4:07future employers. If the county approves the proposed urban growth boundary changes, more detailed planning would still be required before annexation and development occurs. What we'd anticipate is if this does make it in our urban growth boundary, then there'd be further sub-area planning efforts where we'd look at more detailed plans, go out to the citizens again and refine our vision in that area specifically, Cromett said. The city is also planning for transportation infrastructure as part of the potential expansion. Cromett said battlegrounds existing citywide trail plan and other transportation planning documents would inform future development. In the dollar's corner area, he said, trails would be incorporated alongside employment development. City communications manager Alicia Smith said the city's non-motorized transportation action plan identifies existing gaps in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure that can be considered as future development occurs. The proposed urban growth changes are the result of several years of work involving city staff, residents, volunteers, the planning commission, and city councils. Just that these plans don't get thrown together overnight, Cromett said, regarding what citizens can take away from comprehensive

5:08planning. This is the work of many volunteers, citizens, and the planning commission, and previous and current councils that have in some ways touched on these efforts over the past, I'd say five to six years that have gone into our plan. Smith said the city's work on the proposal is now largely complete as the process moves to the county. So we've done our work, and now it's taking it up to that next level with the county now. Smith said, on where the comprehensive update plan sits before finalization, the county's review will determine whether the proposed urban growth boundary changes move forward as part of the comprehensive plan update. Cromett said the city also identified two additional parcels that it hopefully will be restored to its preferred alternative after being left out of an earlier version. This report was first published by the Reflector newspaper reporter Cade Barker can be reached at cade. Barker at the Reflector.com