City of Woodland - 2018-2022 Comp Plan Amendment Process

In 2018, the City of Woodland accepted a number of applications requesting changes to the Woodland Comprehensive Plan. Upon an extensive public participation effort, the City Council adopted Ordinance 1433 making some minor changes within the city limits.

Expansions of the Urban Growth Area was a major part of the discussion but the Council declined to act on those applications because of advice based on the 1981 and 2002 interlocal agreements with Cowlitz County. 

Woodland recently recognized that those interlocal agreements have been superseded by the adoption of the 2016 City of Woodland Comprehensive Plan. That plan was found to be fully compliant with the Washington State Growth Management Act by the State Department of Commerce. Accordingly, the city rescinded those agreements to clarify that the comp plan was the sole planning guidance document for the city.

With the Washington State Growth Management Act required periodic review due soon, the city has to consider whether updating the plan without planning for an expanded urban growth area is practical. On September 19th, 2022, the council adopted Ordinance 1523 expanding the growth area for consideration under the comp plan update. At that time the mayor instructed staff to prepare and submit an application to Cowlitz County for a comp plan amendment to the Cowlitz County Comprehensive Plan. This application would reflect a request to expand the city's urban growth area to be consistent with Ordinance 1523. The plan was for staff to then begin the process of updating the comprehensive plan, shoreline management master program, and the city's water, sewer, and transportation plans based on the Woodland Bottoms urban growth area adopted in Ordinance 1523.

In response to this planning effort, Cowlitz County filed an appeal of the SEPA Determination of Non-Significance citing the city's failure to adequately provide notice or analyze the environmental impacts of Ordinance 1523.  The County has also filed suit in Cowlitz County Superior Court challenging the City's compliance with the Growth Management Act and SEPA. And lastly, an appeal was filed with the Washington State Growth Management Hearings Board.

In order to avoid a costly legal fight, the City Council adopted Ordinance 1529 rescinding Ordinance 1508 (Agricultural zoning standards) and Ordinance 1523 (UGA expansion).

The city is now considering an update to the Comprehensive Plan that includes no expansion of the UGA. The city is also engaging with Cowlitz County in the hopes of getting the County to perform a Master Plan of the Woodland Bottoms. 

The city's stated planning objectives were presented in a November 21st, 2022 workshop. A copy of the presentation from that workshop are included below and the meeting can be viewed in our archives.