Salmon Creek Area Development Moratorium

Update

In September 2007 the Board of Clark County Commissioners allowed the Salmon Creek moratorium to expire. They chose not to renew the moratorium after changing the county concurrency period from three to six years. They also made a finding that Phase 1 of the Salmon Creek Interchange Project is reasonably funded, and expected to complete construction within the next six years.

County Commissioners Enact Development Moratorium

The Board of Clark County Commissioners enacted Ordinance 2005-07-21 (PDF - 2MB) declaring a development moratorium for the Salmon Creek area of Clark County. This moratorium took effect on July 26, 2005. While the moratorium is in effect, the county will not accept applications or pre-applications for:

• land divisions (creation of single-family building lots),
• site plan reviews (new commercial, industrial and multi-family developments), and
• conditional use permits (churches and other potentially higher impact uses in residential areas),

for parcels within the moratorium area (PDF - 295). There are some exceptions to the moratorium (e.g., land uses which are exempted from concurrency, and developments that would not increase traffic from the development site).

On September 20, 2005, the Board of Clark County Commissioners confirmed the July declaration of a development moratorium by enacting Ordinance 2005-09-07 (PDF - 4MB). This ordinance adopted a work plan (PDF - 10K) for staff to address the issue and provided an additional exemption to the moratorium for neighborhood parks. 

Applications for building permits based on a previously-approved subdivision or site plans are not affected by this situation. The county will continue to accept applications for development outside of the moratorium area. However, depending on the nature and location of those development proposals, their effect on traffic within the moratorium area may result in a denial.

The moratorium was enacted because the county's transportation concurrency rules, required by the state Growth Management Act, limit development when resulting traffic would adversely affect congestion and cause a failure to provide minimum standards of service. Travel speeds in the areas served by N.E. 134th Street and Salmon Creek Avenue from I-5 east to N.E. 50th Avenue, or the Salmon Creek (West Central) Corridor, have dropped below established standards, so the corridor is considered to be in concurrency failure. The commissioners' action acknowledges those circumstances and allows the county time to develop a work plan to address the situation.

For further explanation of why this action was taken, please refer to the news release issued by Clark County and the staff report (PDF - 66K) prepared by the county's Public Works Department. A question-and-answer sheet (PDF - 18K) is also available to help applicants understand some of the effects of the moratorium.

Clark County Public Works and the Washington State Department of Transportation are currently studying the proposed Salmon Creek Interchange Project alternative to address traffic in this area. For more information, visit www.salmoncreekinterchange.org.

If you have questions about the application process in this area, please contact Mike Mabrey, Community Planning, (360) 397-2280 ext. 4343. If your traffic engineering consultant has a possible solution for staff to consider, please have your consultant contact Richard Gamble, Transportation Concurrency, Public Works, (360) 397-6118 ext. 4384.