Clark County Community Development Learning Lab

0:00 [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining today. My name is Brian Mattson. I'm here with my colleague, Wendy Baird. We're going to walk you through how you can participate effectively in Clark County's land use decisions. A lot of people want to be involved, but they aren't sure where to start, or they worry that the process is too technical. Our goal today is to show you that this is doable. We'll talk about how to submit written comments, discuss the different review processes, how to prepare for a hearing, and how to make sure your message connects directly to the criteria the county uses when making their decisions. By the end, we're hoping that you have a clear roadmap of how

0:59 to participate. Thank you, Brian. Your input genuinely matters. County staff and the hearing examiner rely on community members to highlight impacts that might not be obvious from review in an application. It is important to note that we can only consider comments that relate to approval criteria in the Clark County Code. Whether everyone is in favor of a proposal or whether everyone is in opposition to a proposal is not something that we can consider. We are not allowed to comment on or consider such things as whether you feel there is an apartment building will increase crime, whether additional traffic will exceed the speed limit, whether the development reduces your privacy, or whether you feel that a neighboring development will devalue your home. Staff and the hearing examiner are only allowed to consider whether the proposal meets the minimum standards of the development code. In the simplest terms, the code is created by Clark County Planning Commission along with public input

1:57 and then ultimately approved by Clark County Council. If you feel the minimum development standards are not enough to mitigate negative impacts or you feel that a development standard should be changed, we encourage you to get involved with the Planning Commission and/or Clark County Council. Attend the public meetings or provide written comments and provide your input on upcoming proposed code changes. When you tie your comments to a specific individual code standards, you gain better traction in your argument as to why you are in favor or in opposition to a proposed development. This also helps the decision maker understand the different perspectives regarding whether something complies or does not comply with standards that may involve limited interpretation. Type 2 reviews involve applications that are subject to objective and subjective standards and that require the exercise of limited discretion

2:57 about non-technical issues and about which there may be limited public interest. The biggest difference between a type 2 review and a simpler pass/fail review like a building permit or a boundary line adjustments that are type 1 reviews is that type 2 reviews include public notice. When staff receives a type 2 review after reviewing the application for completeness, we mail out a public notice of application This notice gives a brief description of the proposed development, includes a proposed site plan, and is mailed to landowners within 500 feet in the urban area and 1,000 feet in the rural area, as well as any applicable neighborhood associations. Staff solicit public comments from these notices, and we catalog all public comments submitted in the public record for the application. If you submit your comments within the 14-day comment period, staff will address them in the staff report. But don't worry, even if you miss the comment window, you can still submit public comments

3:55 as long as the record's open up until and after the hearing, and they will still be made part of the public record. And staff and the hearing examiner will still read these comments. Additionally, it may be important to note that even if you're not within the notice radius, if you're not within 500 feet in the urban area or 1,000 feet in the rural area, you can still comment on any development wherever they are in the county. Anyone who submits written comments are automatically made a party of record for that application. As a party of record, you automatically receive copies of the staff report and decision, and you'll have the right to appeal that decision should you choose. Appeals to type 2 reviews are held in a land use hearing in front of a hearings examiner. Appeals to hearings examiner decisions go to Clark County Superior Court. A public hearing is not required for type 2 reviews unless they're appealed. County staff are the review authority for these type 2 types of proposals. If you're mailed a notice for a type 2 project near you, please don't hesitate to send in your thoughts.

4:54 The notice will list the planner's email as well as a separate email address that you can use to submit your general comments. And that link is development comments, one word, at clark.wa.gov. This is an example of a public notice that I sent out near Daybreak Park. As you can see here, you can see the project name is the Three Creeks East subdivision. You have a case number. It also has a short explanation of the project under the request box here to the right. It'll also tell you the date of the hearing if this was a type 3, which it is, actually. This will tell you the date of the hearing. Also some miscellaneous other information that you can use. This is a copy of the site plan that's attached to that notice. You can kind of see a gist of the layout of the project.

5:48 Can I ask a question, or do you want to-- We're going to take questions at the end. So if you want to write it down, we can address it then. Type 2A review. This review type provides an alternative process for reviews of conditional uses, planned unit developments, and master plans, which combine features of type 2 and type 3 processes. A significant difference between the type 2 and type 2A review is that an applicant is required to hold a community meeting within 90 days prior to the submittal of the application. This meeting is to provide information about the proposal to interested public. The applicant is required to notify the applicable neighborhood association, county staff, and landowners within 1,000 feet of the proposed site. Once an application is submitted, the process will include the public notice mail out that we discussed earlier. A significant difference between the type 2 and type 2A process is that a land use hearing is not

6:47 required for the type 2A process unless someone requests one during the public comment period. If a hearing is requested, county staff schedules a date for the hearing, and the hearing examiner becomes the decision authority. If a hearing isn't requested during the comment period, county staff will be the decision authority. For a type 3 review, these are more involved and they're subject to standards that requires the exercise of substantial discretion and about which there may be a much broader public interest. These are projects that automatically go to a public hearing. The hearings examiner makes the final decision on these types of cases, and they consider staff's recommendation, public written comments, and oral testimony at the hearing itself. These cases often have a broader community interest, things like subdivisions or conditional uses. If you want to speak at a hearing, the following slides will assist you to prepare you for your public testimony.

7:46 It may be important to note that conditional use permits are unique, and that staff and/or the hearings examiner can consider requirements outside of minimum code standards if it is determined that it would be required to mitigate certain impacts. An example of this would be, say, a proposed development has a very loud activity. Staff could recommend to the hearings examiner a sound wall along the side one of the abutting residential properties, even if it isn't required under code, because it's specifically intended to mitigate some of the impacts from this conditional use. The relationship of SEPA to county reviews. The purpose of State Environmental Policy Act, SEPA, is to ensure the governmental agency consider the environmental impacts of the proposal before making a decision. It also requires a responsible official

8:46 to make a threshold determination as to whether a proposal has a probable significance, adverse environmental impacts, requiring an environmental impact statement to be prepared. Once staff decides a SEPA applies, the lead agency, Clark County, must determine if there are possible significant adverse environmental impacts associated with each proposal. The options include the following. A DS, determination of significance. The impacts cannot be mitigated through conditions of approval, thus requiring the preparation of an environmental impact statement. MDNS, mitigated determination of non-significance. The impacts can be addressed through conditions of approval or a DNS, determination of non-significance. The impacts can be addressed by applying the Clark County Code. Clark County mostly uses the optional DNS process, which allows the county to issue an expected DNS as part

9:43 of our mailed notice, which begins the comment period upon issuance of the notice of application. This option shortens the review time by about 14 calendar days and is used by the county for most projects that require a SEPA review. For type two reviews, the SEPA determination will be part of the staff report and decision. The SEPA appeal period will then run concurrently with the appeal period for the decision itself. For type three reviews, the SEPA determination will be part of the staff report and recommendation to the hearing examiner. This report is issued no less than 15 days prior to the hearing so that the SEPA determination can be made final at the close of the hearing, provided no SEPA appeals are filed prior to the hearing. County staff reviews a checklist of 16 topics from the environmental checklist.

10:41 The purpose of this analysis is to identify any potential adverse environmental impacts that may occur without the benefit of protection found within existing ordinances. These include earth, air, water, plants, animals, energy, and natural resources, environmental health, land and shoreline use, housing, aesthetics, light and glare, recreation, historic and cultural preservation, transportation, public services, utilities. Staff then reviews the proposal for compliance with applicable code criteria and standards in order to determine whether all potential impacts could be mitigated by the requirements of the code. So in terms of preparing effective testimony, as anything, preparation makes a huge difference. Before you comment, take some time to review the public notice, the staff report, the site plan,

11:39 and any proposed conditions from the staff report. The county's proposed developments web page is a great resource for this. Everything you need is right there. You can find this web page at community-development/proposed-developments. I've included some screenshots of this web page in the next couple of slides so you can kind of see what it looks like. As you prepare, focus on the approval criteria. Ask yourself, does this proposal meet the minimum standards? And if not, why? And remember, when you go to the hearing, you only have three minutes to speak to offer your oral testimony. So staff's suggestion is that you submit written comments, your lengthy written comments, and then refer to these during your oral testimony, because they'll already be part of the record. That way, you can make the most out of your limited time. This is what the proposed developments web page looks like.

12:38 On the left here, you can see the square with a bunch of little circles on it. These are different projects that you can zoom in on, using the plus and minus arrows at the upper left corner. And to the right, this is when I've zoomed in on a particular project that I have at Daybreak Eastside here. Once you click on one of these little dots, you can see that it gives you a listing of the case number and the project title. And then to the right, as you scroll down that smaller square on the left, to the right you'll see you have a site plan available and a public notice. These are things that you can read whenever you want. Staying focused. When you're preparing your comments, stick to the issues that relate directly to the application. It's easy to drift into personal opinions or unrelated concerns, but those won't help the decision maker.

13:34 Clear, factual, criteria-based comments are the most effective. Most hearings are held online through WebEx, which is our online meeting platform. If you'd like to attend any hearing, simply ask staff to send you an invitation. I'll show you what the invitation looks like in the next slide. At the start of the hearing, staff will explain how to participate, including how to raise your hand when it's time to testify. The order is usually the following. The hearings examiner will provide an introduction to the public hearing. Staff will then provide the slide presentation on how to participate in the public hearing. And then staff will provide the presentation of the case at hand or the application process. At the end of staff's presentation, the hearings examiner may ask staff or the applicant questions about the proposed project, staff report, and/or conditions. In addition, the hearings examiner will allow the applicant up to 20 minutes to provide their testimony or their response

14:33 to the county's presentation. After the applicant's presentation, the hearing examiner typically allows public testimony. First, they will ask if anyone wants to speak that's in favor of the project. And then they'll ask if anybody wants to speak that is opposed to the project. After public testimony, the hearing examiner often allows staff and then the applicant to offer final comments should they choose. The applicant always has the option to provide the final rebuttal at the hearing. Please keep in mind, however, the hearings examiner has complete control of the hearing. And they may vary from this typical process from time to time as they deem necessary. If you prefer not to speak, you can still submit written comments up until the public record closes. And those comments carry the same weight, even while not being limited to the testimonial time constraints. Here's an example of the email invitation that we send out.

15:31 See the green box there that says join webinar? You just click on that, and it brings you into the meeting. Tips for delivering testimony. When it's your turn to speak, keep it simple and authentic. Use your own words. You don't need legal terms. Plain language is perfect. Speak clearly into your microphone and have a short outline in front of you so that you stay on track. Organize your points around the Clark County approval criteria. Rehearsing your comments help you stay within the time limit and reduce nerves. Avoid personal attacks. They distract from your message. And always direct your comments to the hearing examiner, not to staff, the applicant, or other speakers. I have to apologize. I forgot to mention that the hearings always start at 6 PM on the second and fourth Thursdays of every month. Sometimes during holidays, they'll

16:30 change that day to accommodate whatever holiday it is. And there also may be several cases discussed at each one of those hearings. OK, so as far as being concise and complete, decision makers appreciate comments that are focused and to the point. If you have a longer written statement, you can submit your written testimony to the project planner and then summarize the key points during your oral testimony, as we discussed before. The hearings examiner will ask you to provide your comments in writing to the Kellogg County planner beforehand or after. And staff will add your comments as an exhibit of the public record. Once something is made in exhibit, that's read by all staff and the hearings examiner for the project. By submitting your public comments, obviously it's a voice to the hearings examiner. So we advise that you submit these. State in your position, be clear about where you stand. Do you support the staff recommendation? Do you oppose it? Are there specific conditions you

17:30 want to see added or removed? If someone else has already made a point you agree with, it's perfectly fine to simply say you agree. That reinforces the point without repeating it. If you're speaking on behalf of a group, please say so at the beginning of your presentation. Groups are the most effective when each member covers a different issue rather than repeating the same points. You can also request additional time if you're representing a group and the other people in the group don't wish to testify. You can get their time. Continuation of hearings-- currently, standard Clark County policy is to add at least one week to open record period after the close of a hearing. The examiner may grant additional open record time if they deem necessary. It is not unusual for hearings to be continued to a later date. This is called a continuance. Any participant can request additional time to submit additional evidence or testimony,

18:27 and the hearing examiner will consider any request. Please keep in mind that requesting a continuance comes with a fee and is paid by the requester. For type 2 reviews, as we stated before, staff will issue the decision. There's a 14-day appeal period, and anyone who submitted comments becomes a part of your record and can appeal these decisions. Appeals go to the hearings examiner. And how decisions are made for type 3 reviews-- staff issues a recommendation for the hearing examiner, not a final decision. The hearing examiner reviews everything-- staff recommendation, the written record, and the testimony, and then issues a final order. There's also a 14-day appeal period, and appeals go to Superior Court. Once a decision is made, it's mailed to the applicant and to everyone who submitted comments or requested to be a party of record. If you want to stay informed, make

19:26 sure you're listed as a party of record. Many of these tips can be applied to other meetings as well. While the presentation was focused primarily on land use decisions and land use hearings, many of these tips can be applied to Planning Commission meetings as well as Clark County Council meetings. Lastly, please keep in mind that there's always staff listed on the public notices that can answer any questions that you may have about the proposed development. This last page, we've included a bunch of links for you. And you can always replay this broadcast to get these links later if you want. I'm pretty sure it's probably on some of the documents that they gave you when you came in as well. Please refer to these. You have a land use general inbox is the first one we provided. We provide a planner every day to man that inbox. And they return all phone calls and emails within 24 hours, unless you call on a Friday.

20:26 Then you have to wait till Monday. The proposed developments link is on here where you can research the projects. We have another web page for the land use processes in general that just kind of walk you through the process. We also have a link to the Clark County code. This is where all the minimum standards are found. This is an important one. We also have a link here to community planning because a lot of times, community planning does things that relate to land use. The big difference between community planning and land use planning is community planning is looking at the comprehensive growth plan and expanding the urban areas. They also do a little more code changes with the planning commission than we do. Land use is specifically applying these standards to proposed developments more than creating the policies themselves. And then our last email here is a land use project's weekly neighborhood report. You can sign up and be emailed. It's a link, and you can just be added to the distribution list

21:24 so you get copies of everything new every week. OK, this concludes our presentations. I know we have at least one question. Do you want to start us off? Before we get-- oh, before we get into the Q&A, if you could please use the microphone in front of you. To use the microphone in front of you, you're going to press the button here. And then when you're done asking your question, you'll press the button again to re-mute the mic. In general terms, what's the difference between the Type 2 and the Type 3? Type 3s go to hearings, and Type 2s don't. That's the main difference. They both get public notice, but staff make the decision on Type 2. And then a hearings examiner makes the decision on a Type 3. Staff just recommends a decision to the examiner, and the examiner can take it or leave it. They can add conditions, or they can remove them.

22:22 OK. So what projects would be between a 2 and a 3? So a subdivision, which is 10 or more lots in the urban area, would be a Type 3, would automatically go to a hearing. Nine or less lots in the urban area would be a short plat, which a staff would make a decision on. OK, so we're automatic. 10 or more. Most of your commercial site plans would be a Type 2, where staff would make the decision. In the case of uses that require a conditional use permit, those can often go to a hearing if staff decides that their impact's great enough to require a hearing, rather than do the Type 2A, where they only do a hearing if somebody requests one. I can give you more detail on that, if you want. I could read code for quite a while on the differences, but I'm trying to touch on the main parts for you.

23:21 This is the research queen. She's been reading code, not me. That's the way you make impactful comments. And these are just sort of general things. We briefly described what we have going on in our community. But you mentioned two things that caught my attention. One was reduced privacy, and one was environmental under light and glare. So what does reduced privacy mean in code? OK, for example, if you live next to a development, and it used to be a field, and there used to not be anybody back there, if you make a comment that says, I didn't used to have somebody behind my house, and now I have somebody I have to look at in a house, that's not a comment that we can attach to a code standard, necessarily. Now, light and glare, possibly, because those

24:20 are impacts that could be mitigated either under the SIPA decision. Or for example, if you're in the light industrial areas, they have this list of performance standards. And one of them is light and glare, where you have to shield your-- you're supposed to direct your lighting downward and shield it from trespass to other properties and to abutting right of ways, things like that. Interesting. OK. At the hearings-- oh, OK. At the hearings, OK, we have 46 people, 46 homes. So that's not reasonable for everybody just to come and vent. And we want to be very specific on what we're saying. So I mean, you said it starts at 6 PM, and you might do more than one in one night. Right. Is there like a time frame? Like one hour max, that's it, end of story. Well, if it goes too late, the hearings examiner itself may continue it.

25:18 What I do suggest, though, is if you have 46 people, it seems-- it seems-- I doubt that everyone will have unique things to talk about within their three minutes, right? And repeated testimony doesn't hold any greater weight than saying it once. So what I would suggest is potentially that you assign a couple of people to talk for the group. Maybe they can get more time from the other people. Every single person that wants to submit written comments is able to do so. We'll take it all, and we'll put it all in the record, right? But when you go to testify, if you-- you can say you agree with someone's testimony, but if just repeating what they said, like I said, doesn't gain any more weight of what was discussed. That makes sense. And a lot of it would be emotional rather than-- Right, right. But it is your right to submit that as comments if you want. Yeah, OK, OK.

26:14 You said it was the second and fourth, and I don't know if you said Tuesday or Thursday. Thursday. Thank you. You don't have to raise your hand. You could just say it. This is just-- yeah. Would you have any examples of effective testimony, et cetera, that you could share? Does that make sense? Yeah, no, written comments. Yeah. I can submit-- I can share any of those with you. That would be that are effective. Yes, yeah, the things that are based on standards, that have more traction as an argument. That's what you're looking for. Exactly. Of course. Anything you submit as public comments is also public record also. So just keep that in mind. So we could see that. And again, you know, it's just we're trying really hard to mitigate in a positive way. We may not be able to stop it.

27:14 Can we make it the best for us, if at all possible? Right. What you've stated there is important, right? Because if a project is proposed that meets the standards, we're not allowed to deny it based on popularity. It's just-- And we understand that. OK. We do. So with reduced privacy, if I say the window at level three will look directly in my window, that's not reduced privacy. Well-- Or it is. It reduces your privacy. But we don't have any standards other than a minimum screening that would be required. And we don't really have-- we don't have requirements that require 30-foot tall screenings, right? So you know, you have the standard-- we'd have trees every 30 feet in a privacy buffer.

28:14 But you'd have to wait for those to grow. But there are minimum standards that are intended for some of these impacts. But we can't require more than the minimum standard unless it's a conditional use. And it has some sort of demonstrable impact that we can quantify. We did talk to the developer and asked about trees, or arborvitae, or a sound barrier, which I knew wouldn't work, but I asked anyways. And because they're townhomes, and so they'll be individually owned. And so he said, well, we can't plant trees all along your fence, because they're all going to be individually owned and the owners could pull the trees out. So trees is a question. So I'm not familiar with where you're at and what project in particular. But I can tell you that the code-- if there's a single family zoning next to a multifamily

29:13 zoning, oftentimes the multifamily zoning will require a 5 to 10 foot buffer with trees and shrubs and that sort of thing next to it. And again, this is entirely site specific. So I'd have to look at the plan. No, that's fine. Single family-- oh, so that was-- if we're in the highway 99 impact zone, or whatever you call that, there are special regulations there compared to code 40? Yes, additional design standards. So the additional design standards, do they take precedence over code 40? When they conflict, yes. When the title 40 standards conflict with the highway 99 design standards, highway 99 standards prevail. But if the highway 99 standards are silent about a certain aspect, then-- This could be important. I'm sorry, if the highway 99 standards

30:12 are silent about a certain subject and title 40 has requirements for it, then the title 40 does apply. Again, when you get notice, send in comments. And that way you'll be a party of record and you'll get a staff report from the staff member that identifies all of these different standards and findings and then conditions. And that's when you'll have a much better idea of whether it complies or whether it doesn't, or whether you feel it doesn't go far enough to mitigate impacts. So does your land use department-- are you in charge of those highway 99? No, no. Community planning and previous Clark County-- boards of Clark County Council have come up with those-- Planning Commission, Board of County Counselors in the past. Now it's the Clark County Council. So-- We're in charge of reviewing those standards. Yeah, we're in charge of applying these standards to development.

31:11 And that's kind of where we're limited. So you determine whether or not-- if it says we would like to have multi-family-- yeah, multi-- what is it called? When you have lots of people in-- Multi-family. Yeah, multi-family development compared to single-family homes. Each zoning-- You would decide that? No, each zoning has allowed uses. And in multi-family zones, they allow more density in housing. In single-family zones, they have less. Commercial zones allow commercial things. So it depends on which zone you're in. And the highway 99 has many different sub zones in it. I guess what I'm confused about is allowing compared to requiring, because what I heard from the developer were required to do high density. It's not an option for us. But we're not high density. And then we were told, but precedence is not in land use.

32:11 Does that make sense? It might be a matter of semantics, whether it's allowed or required. So if you're allowed to have multi-family dwellings there, it's a requirement that you meet the allowed uses. There are several different densities allowed. If it's not an allowed use, you're not able to do it, or you're restricted from it. I think it's a matter of semantics when you say required or allowed. OK, thank you. Thank you. That's what I thought. Is that it? If you have more-- no, honestly, if you're like me, I come up with all my best questions a half an hour after the meeting. Exactly. Email us in, and we'll handle it. When I go to the websites and I click on it, it doesn't show the things that you're showing. Is there anyone I can call or-- oh, thank you. Because I've tried to find the other-- and I couldn't find it, because, you know.

33:10 Do you have teams on your computer at home? Teams meetings? We have this ability now, which we didn't use to, and I really like it, where you can send an invite to somebody to a meeting, and they can accept it. And you can show your screen, and you can move the mouse around the screen and show you where to get this stuff. It's really helpful. It is. I had a computer tech guy that helped me do that. I gotcha. OK. You know what that is? I do. Good. You can tell. We're on the HOA board, so we're trying to lead the charge. OK. Thank you. Is there any other questions? Lady in the back. How much does an appeal cost? Appeals, the current cost for an appeal right now is $2,118. I have a question.

34:08 What should I do if I'm concerned that my comments have not been received? You can always call or email the land use planner assigned to the case, which is posted on the notice you would have received in the mail. If you don't have a copy of the notice, you can reach out to the general land use inbox at landuse@clark.wa.gov. The planners keep the public record. We should have an easy access to all of the comments to confirm that you are included. And if not, we have the ability to add them as needed. Thank you.

34:55 If I don't own a computer, can I mail in my comments or drop them off in person? Of course you can. You can mail in your comments to P.O. Box 9810, Vancouver, Washington 98666. But please, when you mail them in, put the case number or an address or attention to the planner that you see on the notice so we know who to get it to. Also, if you want to show up and hand them over in person, you can do that as well. The public service center here is located at 1300 Franklin, or downtown Vancouver, just north of the courthouse. Do people usually hire experts to testify on their behalf? They do. Sorry, Wendy. No, go ahead. Go for it. It isn't uncommon for parties to hire a consultant. So let's say that one of the things that you're concerned with is a geotechnical analysis.

35:52 The applicant likely has a licensed geoscientist. So you could hire your own to refute those findings if you chose to. If it's wetland biology, there could be any number of subjects that I'm not an expert on, that I'm not educated in, that a hearings examiner might appreciate the technical level of understanding of that person's testimony rather than a simple opinion from me about I don't like it. So certainly, if there are technical issues at stake, it might be worth it to hire your own consultant to offer testimony for you, or written testimony as well. It's very common. Does your department also look at traffic? Or is that a different department, and they do a report and report back to you? It's a second.

36:51 Our public works staff has a transportation concurrency engineer. And I think this is what you're getting at. Off-site traffic, whether you need a signal or that sort of thing, that's transportation concurrency. And they write up their own staff report and findings that we incorporate into our land use decisions. And it's still appealable, just like anything else in our decision, if you wanted to hire a different traffic engineer to refute findings of the county or the applicant, you're welcome to do so. Anything in that land use application is subject to appeal. If you don't like a condition of approval, you can focus on that condition of approval. Thank you. You're welcome. OK, I think we're wrapping it up. If there are no other questions, thank you for attending today's session. And thank you to our presenters. Our next session's topic is the importance

37:50 of permitting commercial tenant occupancy, a guide for commercial landlords. This is presented by permit services staff, Laurie Barnes and Debbie Miller. And this is scheduled for the third Thursday of next month, April 17th at 11 AM. And we hope to see you there. OK. Great job. Thank you.

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