🧮 Budget Season Meets Data-Center Season - Klickitat BOCC 9/16 - 10/6

Enjoy the audio edition on Buzzsprout, or look for "Open Gorge" wherever you get your podcasts.

🏛 Klickitat County Commissioners Round-Up: September 16 to October 6, 2026

Agencies Covered: Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners (September 17, 22, 24 and 29, and October 1 and 6, 2026).

The Bottom Line: The Board did not adopt a data-center moratorium. On September 29 it backed something it called interim zoning instead, and on October 6 one commissioner said he still thinks a moratorium would be a good thing. Meanwhile the permanent ordinance got its second draft, and it asks more of a data center on some points and less on others. And the budget workshops running alongside it are the same arithmetic: county costs rising about 4 percent a year against a property tax that can rise 1.

The Vibe: Busy and a little frayed. Six sessions in three weeks, two long budget workshops, a neighbor dispute heard over two days, and a public that keeps coming back with petitions.

🔎 What Changed

• The Board approved its ADU amendments on September 29: bigger units, the owner still has to live on site, and one of the two homes may become a short-term rental.
• The Board affirmed the short plat on Tomahawk Road near Husum on September 29 and approved its findings on October 6.
• Robb Van Cleave was reappointed interim County Administrator from November 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, or longer until a permanent hire is in place.
• The Board set a public hearing on Supplemental Budget 2026-3, $1,607,518, for October 27 at 1:30 PM.

⚠ What Escalated

• The second draft data-center ordinance, dated October 1, cut the buffer from homes from one mile to a bracketed [500] feet, dropped the signed guarantee that residential power would not be affected, and keeps the decommissioning bond in place "during the decommissioning" rather than "during the life of the project."
• Two petitions for a pause: one with 50-plus paper signatures handed in on September 29, and an online petition the Washington State Standard put at nearly 800 signatures as of October 6.

🧭 What's Next

• October 13, 2026: staff told the Board on October 6 they hoped to bring the second draft back that day for initial input. Also a 1:30 PM public meeting on the Hali LLC short plat near White Salmon.
• October 19 to November 6, 2026: Bear Creek Bridge No. 103 on Jennings Road is closed to all traffic.
• October 19, 2026, 6 PM: the Planning Commission takes up the smaller solar energy overlay zone again, the Goldendale Sentinel reported.
• October 27, 2026: a short-term rental workshop in the morning; at 1:30 PM, hearings on the supplemental budget and a Six-Year road plan amendment.
• November 10, 2026: the annual Six-Year road plan hearings, 1:30 PM in Goldendale and 6 PM at the Pioneer Center in White Salmon.

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🕯️Cabinet of Curosities: the Reluctant County

Before we get to the meetings, a story about how Klickitat County almost didn't happen.

In December of 1859, the territorial legislature in Olympia created a new county out here. They spelled it C-L-I-C-A-T-A-T. They put the county seat on Alfred Allen's land claim, across the river from The Dalles. And they appointed a full slate of officers: three commissioners, a sheriff, an auditor, a treasurer and more.

There was one problem. About fifteen families wintered here that year, and they were in no hurry. As the 1904 county history put it: "Few people are anxious to hasten the time when they will be required to pay taxes, especially when no apparent benefit is to be derived from their payment."

So most of the appointees just... never took their oaths. Olympia could appoint them, the history says, "but it could not compel them to qualify." No assessment rolls. No taxes.

In 1860 the county held an election. Most of the winners didn't take office either. There was, the history says, "a general understanding" among the settlers "that the men elected were not to qualify."

Olympia, the history says, "was persistent." In January of 1861 it appointed a whole new slate, and the county finally got up and running.

So Klickitat County was born in an argument about taxes. This month, the commissioners are still doing that math. Now... on to this month's business.

Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners

Sept. 29: "moratorium light"

Our last edition ended with a moratorium motion dying for lack of a second, the Board taking no action on a pause, and staff aiming for a draft ordinance by October 1. On September 29, Community Development Director Scott Edelman came back with a third option.

He called it interim zoning. "It's sort of a moratorium, it's not a moratorium, but it puts guardrails in place so we have time to do the ordinance," he said. One speaker at the table called it "kind of moratorium light."

As Edelman described it, the interim rule would allow a data center outright in the Industrial Park zone and as a conditional use in General Industrial, and bar it everywhere else. It could not sit within one mile of residentially zoned land or within five miles of an incorporated city. The one-mile line, he said, "rules out Dallesport, rules out Roosevelt." The five-mile line is aimed at Goldendale. That leaves the old aluminum plant site, or land rezoned to meet the distances. Unlike a moratorium, applications would still be accepted.

Why not a full pause? One voice at the table said the aluminum plant site's owners "have been talking to the county for years," and that a full moratorium would be "pulling the rug out from under them."

There was no vote. "There's no voting in a workshop," the room was reminded. Chairman Ron Ihrig summed up a consensus to move forward with an interim zoning ordinance, the Goldendale Sentinel reported, and staff went off to draft it with the Prosecuting Attorney. When the chair read the limits aloud for the public that afternoon, a voice at the dais added, "So this basically limits 90% of the county."

One section of state law puts interim zoning on the same clock as a moratorium. A board that adopts one without a hearing first has to hold one within 60 days, and it can run six months, or a year with a work plan (RCW 36.70.795). No interim text had come back to the Board by October 6.

Two drafts: more thorough, and looser in places

The permanent ordinance is a separate document on a slower track. The county has posted two versions on its data center information page: a five-page draft handed out September 22, and a seven-page "ver 2.0" dated October 1. Both are marked as drafts and both have blanks. Both would make a data center of 20 megawatts or more (a number bracketed in the second draft) a conditional use in the Industrial Park and General Industrial zones and bar it everywhere else.

On October 6 Edelman called the first one not even a rough draft, posted "so the public knew what categories we were considering." The second, he said, is "a much more thorough draft," written by Economic Development Specialist Keaton Curtice.

It is more thorough. It requires noise and visual impact studies for every project, makes battery storage at a data center its own conditional use, names diesel backup generators as needing their own permits, and puts the cost of training and equipping local first responders on the applicant.

On other points it asks for less. Side by side:

• Distance from homes. Draft 1: not within one mile of a residential dwelling. Draft 2: not within [500] feet of a dwelling or any residentially zoned parcel. The brackets mark a number that is not settled.
• Power. Draft 1 required a signed contract with Klickitat PUD guaranteeing the facility "will not impact electrical power utilized by residential users," plus a PUD letter that capacity exists for 20 years of residential growth. Draft 2 drops both. In their place is a section headed "Klickitat Public Utility District Predominates": the applicant coordinates with the PUD and pays for the infrastructure to bring power to the PUD's transmission system.
• Water. Draft 1 required closed-loop cooling "or other such cooling technology that minimizes consumptive water use" above 5,000 gallons a day of potable water, and required the operator to make its actual water use available. Draft 2 drops that 5,000-gallon trigger and names closed-loop cooling as one example, and the water-use disclosure is gone. It does ask more in two ways: its water-saving rule applies to every project, not just those on utility water, and its 5,000-gallon water-supply proof covers all groundwater, not just potable water.
• The environment. Draft 1's purpose statement promised to minimize impacts to residential communities and "the environment." Draft 2 drops those two words, and drops the section that named the critical areas ordinance, the State Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Draft 2 adds a line saying it does not override existing law.
• Bonds. Draft 1 set bonds at 110 percent of public infrastructure and decommissioning costs. Draft 2 sets them at 100 percent, plus a contingency of no more than "[x] percent" on infrastructure and an inflation adjustment on decommissioning. Whether that totals less than 110 percent depends on numbers not yet set. Draft 1 kept the decommissioning money "posted and maintained during the life of the project." Draft 2 says "during the decommissioning."

As written, Draft 2 does not require the decommissioning money to be in place while a data center is running.

On October 6 Edelman drew the line between the two tracks: "It's the interim measures that have the much more strict boundaries." He added that the interim distances might end up in the final ordinance if the Board wants them there. He also described a new clause, which came out of a conversation with Klickitat PUD's general manager and PUD Commissioner Dan Gunkel, to keep large users from building their own power lines alongside the PUD's. It still needs legal review.

Oct. 6: no action, and a commissioner for a pause

The October 6 agenda carried no data-center item. Staff said they hoped to bring the second draft back on October 13 for the Board's first reaction, aiming for "a draft that you're comfortable sending to the planning commission." Commissioner Lori Zoller was excused that day, Gorge Country Media reported.

Public comment kept coming back to a pause. A caller from the Appleton area said sign-wavers had been out Sunday on Highway 14 and in Goldendale, and that their petition "jumped by over 200 signatures over the weekend."

Commissioner Todd Andrews, who proposed a moratorium this summer, answered her. "I do believe a moratorium would be a good thing. I did propose one," he said, adding that he has concerns the interim measure is not as fail-safe, as Gorge Country Media reported.

Ann Slead of Dallesport asked who gains from moving fast: "We stand to lose more than we stand to gain by rushing into this." After she spoke, a commissioner said that with or without a moratorium, writing the ordinance "is going to take the same time." Pat Arnold, who said Friends of the White Salmon River opposes data centers, told the Board too many questions on water, noise and pollution are still open. "It's like a gold rush or something," she said.

The paper petition came in on September 29, when a Snowden resident read it aloud: "We need a moratorium on data centers now so that no more of these projects proceed in secrecy without policy or guardrails." The online petition was begun by Jenn Sharp, the Washington State Standard reported, which also reported Commissioner Lori Zoller saying Board approval might come around October 20, pending legal review.

ADUs: bigger, owner on site, one unit may be a short-term rental

The accessory dwelling unit debate that started in the spring was settled on September 29.

The Planning Commission had recommended dropping both the rule that the owner live on the property six months a year and the ban on short-term rentals in either unit, and adding "income generation" as a purpose of the code. Staff backed the bigger size and opposed the rest, though Edelman floated letting one unit be a short-term rental if the owner stayed. "You could have a company from California purchase 50 properties" with two short-term rentals on every one, Edelman told the Board on September 22.

Most speakers at that hearing (six of eight) asked to keep the owner on site. Jacob Wolf called removing both protections "a fundamentally different housing policy." George Ogden asked the Board to change things "one at a time." Daina Bambe, for the Trout Lake Community Council, said the council would reluctantly accept one short-term rental unit as long as the owner-occupancy rule stayed.

That is roughly where the Board landed on September 29 (Gorge Radio). ADUs can grow from 924 to 1,296 square feet and are measured to the nearest point within 200 feet of the main house. Parking is spelled out. A large enough lot can be split so the ADU stands on its own. The six-month owner-occupancy rule stays, and one of the two homes may be a short-term rental. Until the county's rental rules exist, staff said, that takes a conditional use permit. The "income generation" purpose was struck. Staff said the ordinance text would come back in about two weeks.

Short-term rentals: a firmer count, and a $200 fee

As of October 6 the rental license was still being written. Edelman's September 17 memo gives the county's latest count from its new monitoring software: 209 rental properties from 532 listings, with 241 listings not yet matched to a property. Of those 209, 22 look like ADUs, which current code does not allow as short-term rentals.

Research elsewhere points the same way: most ADUs never become short-term rentals. A statewide survey of California ADU owners found only 8 percent of new ADUs were short-term rentals (UC Berkeley's Terner Center, 2021), and the James Madison Institute, a Florida free-market think tank, found 3 to 13 percent of permitted ADUs in six Florida counties had ever been listed on Airbnb, about 3 percent at any one time (2026). Allowing for listings not yet found and for people who don't sign up, staff expect to license 104 to 150. That is well under the 500 to 700 floated earlier, a figure the county administrator said may have included the cities. We first reported rough rental numbers in July.

The memo prices a license at $79 to $390 depending on how much staff time the fee is meant to cover. Edelman recommended a flat $200 and a review after a year or two. He described his view of the program as "enthusiastic, but also reluctant." The draft ordinance would require $1 million in liability insurance, as state law already does (a booking platform's coverage also counts), and an owner and backup contact within a 60-minute drive, on call whenever it is rented. The September draft still says an ADU and its main house can't be short-term rentals, so it will have to catch up with the September 29 decision. The Board set a workshop for the morning of October 27.

The Tomahawk Road short plat: affirmed, with a few acknowledgments

Nate Bell's short plat splits about 1.25 acres on Tomahawk Road near Husum into two lots. Neighbors George and Lynnette Ogden appealed it, and the Board heard the appeal over September 22 and 29.

Nobody disputed the basic facts. The county's own site visit found that a shop approved for office use was being rented as a home and a shed approved without utilities had been made into one, without permits. Staff's plan is to divide the lot first and permit the conversions after: the applications must be filed before the plat is recorded but would be reviewed after. The appellants called that backwards. "Review first, record second," George Ogden said. Bell said the county told him to do it in that order, apologized for building without permits, and said, "It was not deceitful. It was not a scheme."

Staff acknowledged two things on the record. "I think it is a failure in our SEPA process that we don't notify neighbors during SEPA," Edelman said (notice isn't required, he noted). And when Ogden raised a 2024 complaint about the shed, Edelman said, "that is accurate. It was not taken as it should be." The September 22 appeal packet reprints the county's June 2024 reply to Ogden's follow-up about Airbnb listings at the property, from its code compliance officer: "STR violations are not something my department is accepting at this time." The same email said a separate case alleging no building permits was being looked into. Edelman also said he had sent out the Planning Commission's meeting link by mistake, so some people couldn't get into the September 22 hearing. The Board held the written record open until 5 PM Friday, September 25.

On September 29 the Board affirmed the preliminary approval. Commissioner Andrews said the process was no shortcut: "if this is a shortcut, I'd rather take the long route." Another commissioner added, "I think the county's failed the neighbors here, but that's a different discussion." The Board approved the written findings on October 6. Either side can go to Superior Court.

Budget season: what departments asked for

The Board spent all of September 24 and October 1 hearing department budgets for 2027. Nothing was adopted. No typed record of either workshop had been published by October 6.

• 911. Director Jeff King said the money for contract dispatchers runs out in "mid-December" at the current rate. 911 leans on landfill revenue for about $1.6 million a year.
• Public health. Director Erinn Quinn asked for about $35,500 more in general-fund money than last year, mostly for the health officer's wages, and said the county has put none of its own money into public health for about six years. She said the ask is mainly about the county's share, not money she needs today. The state's foundational public health money to the county dropped $380,000 this state fiscal year, which began July 1, from $1,552,000 to $1,172,000, according to the county's state health contract. Her department's reserve, she said, is "how I'm going to survive for the next two years."
• Senior Services. Director Sharon Carter said rides are often turned away when the schedule is full. Commissioner Zoller, who sits on the regional aging and disability board, said the county should know by November where state cuts will land, and that she is worried about in-home care and food money. "I'm really worried about where these departments are going for senior services," she said.
• Roads. Public Works said it has $11 million in federal money and about $1.4 million in state money lined up for 2027, much of the federal share redistributed from other counties that couldn't deliver, because "we're shovel ready." Road maintenance has been held at about $6 million, with one raise since 2014.
• The old Horsethief Lake landfill. Ecology now wants public access to the closed landfill's gas vents blocked. Staff priced a perimeter fence at $125,000 and said landfill dollars were the only way they had found to pay for it. There was little patience at the table for Ecology. "I don't think we should budget to do the Cadillac," someone at the table said, and the line was cut to a $25,000 placeholder while staff look at barriers around each vent.
• Pay. Inflation came in at 4.4 percent. County staff put a matching raise for non-union staff at about $438,000, against $400,000 set aside. No decision.

On October 6 a commissioner said the landfill-funded requests had been "originally $900,000 out. Now we're about $500,000 out since our budget meetings." The commissioner said he would meet with the budget manager, administrator, treasurer and auditor on October 8 to bring options back.

Where the budget talk and the data-center talk meet

These were two conversations on the calendar. In the county's books they are one, and it's the one our Levy Scissors series has been following.

Start with costs. County staff told the Board inflation came in at 4.4 percent. Settled union contracts are getting 4 percent. Public Works said Goldendale's water and sewer rates for county buildings are going up 8 percent. Now the revenue. The county's general property tax levy can grow at most 1 percent a year without a vote, plus what new construction adds, and Klickitat levied the most the law allowed for 2023, 2024 and 2025, as we reported last edition. We explained the 1 percent rule in "Splitting the Dinner Check." The space between those two lines is where the landfill money goes, and where the 911 contract, the public health ask and the senior vans get argued over.

Data centers keep coming up as a way to widen the revenue side. Chelsey Jones, an economic development specialist for the county, told the Washington State Standard that data-center taxes could support "fire, EMS, recreation, hospital and school districts as well as regional libraries and the county itself."

The fine print cuts both ways. Washington exempts eligible data centers in rural counties from state sales tax on their servers and power equipment (RCW 82.08.986). On October 6 a commissioner said he had run the numbers on a full build and put the sales tax that would go back to the developer at "somewhere between 15 to 20 some million," while saying he wasn't sure how that money would flow. He also pointed out that the Legislature ended the break for replacement servers this year. That change took effect July 1, 2026, and since data centers swap out servers every few years, he called it "a sales tax windfall to counties."

The draft ordinance is the other place the two conversations meet, because it decides which costs of serving a data center land on the developer. Draft 2 adds one that matters for local services: developers would pay to train and equip the first responders who would answer their calls. It also changes the bonds for public infrastructure and cleanup from 110 percent of cost to 100 percent plus amounts not yet set.

Pat Arnold put the question plainly on October 6, in the same comment where she asked for a moratorium: "if there's benefit to be had, if they're going to be constructed, the county and the people who live here, the rate payers here, the taxpayers, should get some."

No county document yet says whether a data center would narrow the gap or add to what the county has to pay for. Several of the numbers that would decide it are still in brackets.

A supplemental budget, with a hearing anyway

The county will hold a public hearing on Supplemental Budget 2026-3 on October 27 at 1:30 PM. It totals $1,607,518, though most of that is housekeeping: $666,792 for the White Salmon Valley Pool district grant the Board approved in August, and the balances of two retired capital funds (one for radio towers, one for the Services Building) moving to other funds. The resolution says state law doesn't require a hearing and the county is holding one "in the effort of transparency."

The new spending, $184,483, is mostly the courts and the Sheriff. The Sheriff's Office asked for $113,933, from union wages and fuel to academy costs for two new deputies, plus $3,722 for "Goat Boarding for problem goats." East District Court asked $25,000 for jury trials and for more than 1,500 mailings about refunds owed under the state Supreme Court's 2021 Blake decision. Superior Court asked $20,000 for jurors and witnesses, after mistrials, retrials and a late-year surge of trials drained those accounts.

Bear Creek Bridge closes again

Bear Creek Bridge No. 103 on Jennings Road near Trout Lake closes to all traffic October 19 through November 6, 2026, for more work found on inspection (county notice and detour map; Resolution No. 07026). It is the bridge's second closure this year, after a summer closure for the bearing repairs we reported in June. Public Works said Northwestern Lake and BZ Corner bridges may see delays but no closures.

The new Hood River bridge: the county keeps its land, for now

Bridge Authority commissioner and former county commissioner Jacob Anderson told the Board on October 6 the replacement Hood River-White Salmon bridge is at 60 percent design and now costs $1.12 billion, with a $532 million federal grant application that has passed its first hurdle, as Gorge Country Media reported. He said completion is hoped for in 2031. Columbia Gorge News reported completion would follow in 2032.

His ask: the county owns a landlocked parcel at the Washington landing. Would it donate the land, or grant easements? The two commissioners present told staff to start on temporary and permanent easements for the bridge, taking effect once the project is fully funded, and nothing more for now. "What I don't want to do is transfer 100% of the property to the bridge authority at this time," one said. They plan to take it up again with Zoller.

Also on the record

• Solid waste plan. The Board agreed on October 6 to send the county's updated solid waste and hazardous waste plan to the cities for adoption. Consultant Wendy Mifflin of Herrera said many of the state's newer recycling and organics requirements start at 25,000 residents, and the county is under that.
• Interim administrator. Robb Van Cleave's new appointment runs November 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, and longer if a permanent administrator has not yet been hired and oriented, at 0.75 of full time.
• Public records. The Board approved a NextRequest online public-records portal for the Prosecuting Attorney's office: $6,894 the first year, then $10,788 a year.
• Coroner. Coroner Erik Anderson reported 48 cases so far in 2026 against about 80 in a typical year (Gorge Country Media), and said he may propose paying per autopsy instead of a flat rate, since the county has used 8 of the 23 autopsies its contract covers this year.
• Veterans. Veterans Service Officer Michael Watts proposed giving up one of his four days a week so the county can hire a second part-time officer for White Salmon two days a week, the Goldendale Sentinel reported.
• Columbia Land Trust. The Trust walked the Board through its fire work and planned land purchases at a September 17 workshop. On September 29 the Board agreed to send a letter supporting the Trust's funding request for two creek projects.
• RV parks. The Chapter 22.08 rewrite approved September 15 came back as an ordinance on the September 22 consent agenda.

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⚠️ Editor's Notebook: Broader Context

• Interim zoning and a moratorium follow the same clock. Washington's planning statute covers a "moratorium, interim zoning map, interim zoning ordinance, or interim official control" in one section (RCW 36.70.795): a hearing within 60 days if none came first, six months, or a year with a work plan. The practical difference in Klickitat's version is that applications keep coming in, and the rule says where they can go.
• The two tracks differ, for now. The interim idea keeps data centers a mile from residential zoning and five miles from cities. The permanent draft, as of October 1, says 500 feet in brackets and has no city buffer. On October 6 Edelman said the interim distances might still end up in the final ordinance. Staff said in September that an application would be reviewed under the code in place when it is deemed complete, as we reported in our last edition.
• Brackets are placeholders. The [500] feet, [twenty] megawatts and [x] percent in Draft 2 are numbers the county has not settled. Draft 2 also still has unfinished sentences, including the definition of "large load."

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🛠 Jargon Buster

• Consensus vs. a vote. Klickitat's commissioners don't take votes in their workshops. They agree on a direction for staff, and binding actions come back as motions at a business session. A consensus is a signal, not a decision.
• Interim zoning. A temporary set of zoning rules while permanent ones are written. Klickitat's version doesn't stop applications. It limits where they can go.
• Supplemental budget. A change to the adopted budget during the year.
• Easement. The right to use part of someone's land for a set purpose, here a bridge footprint, without owning it.

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How to Join & Learn More

Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners Klickitat County Services Building, 115 West Court, Room #201, Goldendale, Washington Phone: 509-773-4612 · Email: bocc@klickitatcounty.org

The Board meets most Tuesdays starting at 9:30 AM, with a business session at 1:00 PM, and adds workshops, often on Thursdays. Written comment can be sent before any meeting.

To join by Zoom, use meeting ID 586 587 651. Call-in numbers are printed on each posted agenda. Drafts of the data-center ordinance are posted on the county's Data Center Information page.