The Clark County Agricultural Advisory Commission is advising the Community Planning Department on land-use and regulatory issues for the county's upcoming 2025–2045 comprehensive plan. Their recommendations focus on updating local codes to better support the farming industry and implementing conservation mechanisms to protect agricultural land from future development. Additionally, the commission aims to balance economic growth with public health while removing operational barriers for new and existing agricultural producers.
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Clark County Close Up · Apr 26, 2026 · 1:56–2:13 · Watch on CVTV ↗
Keywords: comprehensive plan
What was said
0:54 The Clark County Council created the Agricultural Advisory Commission in late 2024 to get feedback from agricultural producers and others associated with agriculture. This was based upon the recognition that agriculture is a significant contributor to the local economy and a high quality of life for Clark County residents. Hello, my name is Bart Katching. I'm a planner with Clark County Community Planning Department. We're the long range planners for the county. One of the first things that this group was tasked with once they were officially seated as a commission was to help the county review the agricultural land study, which a consultant was working on for us. And so we spent several meetings focused on that, and that resulted in some formal recommendations to the planning commission and the county council.
1:49 And now we've stepped back from that and the commission is advising on broader comprehensive plan issues as we are working towards adopting the 2025 to 2045 comprehensive plan. The 13-member commission held a retreat at a recent meeting to discuss priorities and goals for the coming years. My name is Mo McKenna. I'm the co-chair of the Agricultural Advisory Commission in Clark County. Also really protecting agricultural land, thinking about conservation mechanisms that we can put in place to make sure that we're farming long into the future. Second was looking at regulatory environment that we're working within and making sure that codes are set up to support farming. We of course want to make sure that we're also protecting the public from a public health perspective and making sure that we're all operating safe operations, but really making sure that code isn't getting in the way of farmers being able to make a living here in Clark County.
2:48 The final one was really all about economic development. We are, agriculture is an industry. We employ people. We also feed people. And if we're doing a really great job of that, we're doing both of those well. The Agriculture Advisory Commission members include agricultural producers, Clark Conservation District, the Cowlitz Tribe, and others. My name is Joe Zimmerman and my family owns and operates Busy Farms and I am the other
Evidence (1 match)
direct keyword 1:56–2:13 comprehensive plan
t resulted in some formal recommendations to the planning commission and the county council. And now we've stepped back from that and the commission is advising on broader comprehensive plan issues as we are working towards adopting the 2025 to 2045 comprehensive plan. The 13-member commission held a retreat at a recent meeting to discuss priorities and goals for the coming years. My name is Mo McKenna. I'm the co-chair of the Agricultural Advisory Commission in Clark County. Also really protect