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The Clark County Council is able to repeal a 2022 ordinance that added floor mining zoning to 330 acres within the Chelatchie Bluff space. The ordinance, which the council upheld in 2024, has left the county out of compliance with the state Development Administration Act.
“It would be in my interest to try to get in compliance as soon as possible and not challenge it any further,” Councilor Matt Little stated throughout Wednesday’s council assembly.
The council must decide now {that a} March 10 unanimous ruling from the Washington Court docket of Appeals upheld a 2023 ruling by the state Development Administration Hearings Board. The board discovered that the county “improperly chose to defer a more in-depth review of impacts of the surface mining overlay until the project stage, despite the higher level of detail provided by the applicant.”
The zoning request was filed by Granite Building, which is leasing the land from BRP LLC, a subsidiary of Texas-based Pure Useful resource Companions.
The county planning fee will maintain a piece session on the ordinance April 3. The fee’s suggestion and workers report on the ordinance will then come again earlier than the council for a choice.
Oliver Orjiako, director of Clark County’s neighborhood planning division, advised the council Wednesday that the planning fee wants steering from the council on easy methods to proceed. The council may amend or repeal the ordinance, or it may go away it in place and enchantment the ruling to the state Supreme Court docket.
“We did want to make sure that council had the opportunity to provide that clear direction on our path forward so that we can start moving forward with that process,” Orjiako advised the council.
Chris Prepare dinner, deputy prosecuting legal professional, stated the council might want to decide quickly because the deadline to enchantment the appellate court docket ruling is April 9.
Prepare dinner stated interesting the ruling is “a very iffy proposition.” The state Supreme Court docket doesn’t take most instances, and when it does, it often affirms the decrease court docket, Prepare dinner stated.
Councilor Glen Yung stated he, too, is able to transfer on however nonetheless had reservations. When Granite Building filed its utility for the mining zoning, the county decided the request didn’t want an in depth environmental evaluation till the corporate sought a conditional use allow. The hearings board disagreed, stating an environmental evaluation must be carried out on the earliest level doable when environmental impacts are possible.
“I’m concerned about the unintended consequences of this decision. I believe it will lead to a situation where we will now receive surface mine overlay requests with absolutely zero information attached because any information provided to us will need to be studied, and it’s expensive to do that,” Yung stated. “I think the natural outcome of that is going to be that we have less information available to us when we make those decisions.”
