🏛️ Skamania BOCC & Planning Commission Meeting Recap – July 15, 2025
Commissioners advanced bridge repairs, housing, and health efforts, while planners held a key hearing to zone 2,000+ acres in Underwood—ending years of legal limbo over unzoned land. Catch up on land use, infrastructure, and rural development updates.
County commissioners met on Tuesday to address a wide range of infrastructure, health, and administrative topics. Highlights include bridge projects, housing updates, and long-range planning efforts. Skamania Planning Commission met to decide on some unzoned parcels in Underwood.
🔹 Consent Agenda Approvals
Commissioners approved several contracts and resolutions, including:
- A GIS software agreement with ESRI
- A contract for litter cleanup with the Dept. of Ecology
- A new Community Action Plan update
- A prospectus for a 2026 high-cost bridge inspection
- An agreement to share public works services with the City of Stevenson
- A contract for Medicare outreach with the Area Agency on Aging & Disabilities
🏗 Public Works & Development
Public Works Director David Waymire gave detailed updates on dozens of ongoing projects:
- Road construction and slide stabilization on Wind River Road, Washougal River Road, and Baker Road
- Bridge inspections, guardrail upgrades, and speed limit studies
- Continued building inspections, code enforcement, and septic system monitoring
- Fire Marshal’s recreation burn ban on the east side of the county
- Progress on fairgrounds WiFi upgrades and equipment deliveries for Solid Waste
🏥 Community Health Updates
Community Health Director Tamara Cissell reported on:
- Regional meetings related to behavioral health, emergency preparedness, and developmental disabilities
- Ongoing outreach to expand the Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board
- Participation in homelessness and housing strategy discussions
🏠 Housing & Land Use
The Board heard from the Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation on the Carson Community Land Trust project, which aims to develop permanently affordable housing.
Planning staff also noted that zoning updates in Underwood are underway, with a public hearing scheduled the same evening (July 15) to address previously unmapped parcels.
🏛 Executive & Financial Sessions
Several executive sessions were held regarding employee performance evaluations. Commissioners also held a workshop with Skamania EMS, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Treasurer to explore using Encumbered Lands funds to support Hospital District #1.
Full meeting packet: https://www.skamaniacounty.org/home/showpublisheddocument/16641/638877559739100000
🗺️ Planning Commission Zoning Hearing – Underwood Parcels
On the evening of July 15, the Skamania County Planning Commission held a public hearing to review zoning proposals for over 2,000 acres of previously unmapped land in Underwood. These parcels had gone unzoned for years due to the now-cancelled Whistling Ridge Energy Project, and were effectively without land use restrictions.
⚖️ Legal Background:
The zoning of Underwood’s unmapped lands has been a point of legal contention for nearly a decade. Since 2015, Friends of the Columbia Gorge has sued Skamania County multiple times for failing to zone these parcels, arguing it created loopholes for development inconsistent with the Gorge’s management plan. One of their lawsuits resulted in a 2020 appeals court ruling requiring the county to adopt protective zoning for these lands.
🔗 Columbian coverage of the legal case (2020)
🧭 Zoning Recommendations:
Staff proposed rezoning the affected parcels as follows:
- 426 acres designated Residential 10 (Broughton Lumber and State of WA)
- 1,662 acres designated Commercial Resource Lands 40 (including holdings by TCT Columbia)
This plan, which balances residential with commercial zoning at about a 20/80 split, would bring the final portion of Underwood’s privately owned lands under zoning oversight, aligning with the Conservancy designation in the county’s Comprehensive Plan—focused on protecting natural resources, forests, and rural working lands.
🌲 Background:
The zoning effort began in 2016 and was mostly completed by 2019, but these last parcels remained exempt under state energy siting rules. With the Whistling Ridge project officially terminated in 2024, the county is now finalizing its long-running land-use mapping.
🗳️ Results:
The recommended 20/80 split between R10 Residential and CRL-40 Commercial Resource Lands recommended by staff for these unzoned acres was passed in a 3-2 vote.
Full meeting packet: https://www.skamaniacounty.org/home/showpublisheddocument/16643/638880799239630000
📅 Next BOCC Meeting
The next regular meeting of the Skamania County Board of Commissioners is scheduled for:
🗓 Tuesday, July 22, 2025
🕘 9:30 AM
📍 Skamania County Courthouse – Room 18 (Lower Level), 240 NW Vancouver Ave, Stevenson, WA
💻 Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88906321210
📞 Dial-in: 1 (346) 248-7799 | Meeting ID: 889 0632 1210
📬 Submit written comments by Monday at noon to: sackos@co.skamania.wa.us