Comprehensive Plan
The City of Woodland adopted the Woodland Comprehensive Plan 2016-2036 in March of 2016 and updated the plan in July 2019.
Comprehensive Growth Management Plans
The Growth Management Act (GMA) was adopted in 1990, under RCW 36.70A, and requires counties and cities that meet certain population and growth criteria to adopt and maintain comprehensive plans. Under GMA, comprehensive plans must consist of these elements: land use, housing, capital facilities, utilities, rural lands (counties only), transportation, economic development, and parks and recreation. Due to the small amount of land located within Clark County, the City of Woodland is required to fully plan under the GMA.
These plans account for a minimum 20 years forward, and are to be updated every eight years, as needed. Woodland’s previous Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2005 and looked out to 2025. The new plan will consider 2016 through 2036. (Clark County and the jurisdictions within, including the City of Woodland, are required to review and revise their comprehensive plans by June 30, 2016.)
Public Participation Plan and Preliminary Schedule: The purpose of this plan is to ensure compliance with the Growth Management Act by identifying the scope of proposed activity and potential timeframes for participation and decision making. The GMA calls for early and continuous public participation.
Population Projection and Urban Growth Boundary Expansion: Selecting a population projection is an important step in the update process. This projection is used as the target for the periodic update and allows the City to plan for adequate jobs, housing, capital improvements (roads, utilities, etc.), and other services. As part of this projection, the City can decide to expand the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). The UGB is the planning area including the lands to which Woodland may feasibly provide future urban services, including infrastructure (utilities, roads), employment, and housing. After deliberation by the Planning Commission, the City Council held their own workshops and decided not to expand Woodland’s Urban Growth Boundary this update cycle. Further, City Council selected a population projection of 9,274 which equates to a 2.3% increase over the next 20 years. (For more information about future population growth projections, look for the Population Page on this website.)
2018-2019 Periodic Comprehensive Growth Management Plan Update
In 2018, the city had a number of property owners request updates to the Comp Plan designations for their properties. These requests included both re-designations within the current city limits and expansions of the City’s UGB. Staff undertook a public participation effort to consider comp plan updates. Those efforts are outlined on the "2019 Comprehensive Plan" page.
The Planning Commission decided to pursue Option 3 and review each of the cases on a case-by-case basis. The Planning Commission’s recommendations for the cases were presented to the City Council at a special town hall meeting on April 22nd, 2019. At the City Council May 6th regular meeting, the Council instructed staff to prepare an ordinance for review. Staff prepared Ordinance 1433 for a first reading at the Council’s June 3rd regular meeting with final reading scheduled for July 15th, 2019, when the Washington State Department of Commerce review period is complete. As a result of the update efforts, the City Council adopted Ordinance 1433 making three changes to the adopted comp plan map and one change to the comp plan text. No expansion of the urban growth boundary was approved. That plan is now the officially adopted comprehensive plan for the City of woodland and is attached below.
2023 Comp Plan Update
The City of Woodland has embarked on a periodic update to the Comprehensive Plan in order to be better prepared for a planning effort for the Woodland Bottoms. Please refer to the 2023 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update page to find out more about this project.
