Skamania County enacts moratorium on recreational facilities developments

Skamania County has enacted a moratorium on recreational facilities development in response to concerns about a project that endeavors to bring an adventure park to the county’s West End.

County commissioners Richard Mahar, Tom Lannen and Asa Leckie voted unanimously for the moratorium during a meeting held Oct. 24, after several West End residents asked the County to review and modify its definitions of “recreational facilities” and “recreational activities” in its zoning code.

West End resident George Perry told The Post-Record his advocacy group considers the moratorium a win, and said, “The County’s planning and community development departments now have the opportunity to make sure the language is tight so it’s not misinterpreted.”

Property developer Derek Hoyte has launched an effort to construct an adventure park featuring a “mountain coaster,” zip line course, net park and event venue, on a 150-acre plot of land located at 4101 Canyon Creek Road, which he purchased in 2022.

In August, Marty Snell, a planning services manager for Mackay Sposito, a Vancouver-based consulting firm Hoyte hired to oversee the project, sent an invitation to West End residents living within 500 feet of Hoyte’s property, inviting them to an “informational meeting” that was to be held Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Laurel Lane Event and Retreat Center in rural Washougal. The meeting was eventually canceled and not rescheduled.

Skamania County had not received an application from Hoyte for the project before enacting the moratorium, which will last at least six months.

“I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt I did not envision what .. well, it hasn’t actually been proposed yet, but what’s kind of out there,” Mahar said during the County meeting. “This is difficult for me because whenever I see that language ‘such as’ or ‘but not limited to,’ I always kind of cringe because I know you can never really box everything in, so I don’t know. I think doing a moratorium is really wise because I didn’t see this (type of project coming), and I think the planning commission can work on helping with that language. I don’t know what the perfect language is, but I also see pretty clearly that what (we) intended and what’s out there now doesn’t seem to be compatible at all.”

Skamania County currently defines “outdoor recreational facility” as a facility provided for outdoor recreation encompassing a varying range of activities pursued for purposes such as “physical exercise, general wellbeing, spiritual renewal and education.”

Such activities include, but are not limited to, camping, hiking, skiing, fishing, hunting, shooting, backpacking, picnicking, wildlife and botanical viewing, horseback riding, swimming, rock climbing, cycling, windsurfing, rafting, sailing, and outdoor team sports such as soccer, baseball, tennis, and basketball, according to Skamania County code No. 21.08.10.

“Mr. Hoyte saw an opportunity to exploit some vagueness in the way the zoning law was written, in particular the ordinances the County passed in 2021 which had some sort of etcetera terminology, but still explicitly listed a lot of things that were nowhere near similar to ziplining,” George Perry said. “Most of them are physical activities, not being taken up a hill in a van and (going back) down. We need to make sure people don’t misinterpret what the intent of those zoning changes and what the intent of outdoor recreation really was.”

George Perry and Sarah Perry, along with fellow West End residents Mary Grode and Keith Brown, formed Preserving Washougal and West End Rural Character (PWWERC), a nonprofit organization that endeavors to educate and advocate for the preservation of the Washougal watershed, as well as raise funds for legal and outreach costs, earlier this year.

The four PWWERC board members say they are not necessarily trying to stop the adventure park project altogether, but rather they want to make sure that it fully complies with the West End Comprehensive Community Sub-Area Plan (WECCSP), which was created by more than 250 West End residents from 2001 to 2004 and adopted by Skamania County in 2007.

The plan states that “West Skamania County will continue to be a predominantly rural environment with large open tracts of field and forest lands, with residential and limited small scale commercial development.”

“We want to educate the public about the strong comprehensive plan (that has) guided development and worked and protected peace and tranquility,” Brown said. “That is the thing that the community came together on and protected the community. The three years (of development) were contentious. We had a lot of differences, as you do in any community, so there were a lot of spirited discussions about what should and what should not be allowed. In that process, the community agreed on a mission, a vision, and 10 goals to guide development.”

The second goal states that “new community commercial and neighborhood commercial land uses, as well as cottage occupations, light home industries, and professional services, may be consistent with the rural residential character of the West End community if only allowed subject to conditions that will alleviate adverse impacts to environmental, public safety and aesthetic values. … such as privacy, noise levels and visual issues.”

West End residents feel that Hoyte’s project clearly conflicts with that goal.

“(The plan is) our roadmap,” Sarah Perry said. “If (Hoyte) is operating within the confines of the law and regulations and the comprehensive plan, and building something that’s respectful of the community, more power to him.”

Robbins and Brown’s advocacy efforts date back to 2005, when they, along with nine others, successfully appealed the Skamania County commission’s decision to rezone 94 acres in the West End from residential to commercial use without notifying the public or allowing public comment on the change.

They see some similarities between that effort and their current one.

“We should have formed this organization 20 years ago. That’s the reality,” Brown said. “We thought, ‘OK, we’ll take care of (the Five Corners development and be done with it), but no, (these issues) keep coming back up. That was part of the discussion when we came together on this — ‘It’s time to form an organization, and not just for this (project).’ The Storedahl and Sons quarry is also a threat to the community in terms of peace and tranquility, so that’s another (issue that) this organization will deal with.”

The PWWERC provides the West End with a “stable organization that is at the ready,” according to West End resident Teresa Robbins.

“We’ve discovered over the last 20 years that we have to keep starting from square one and build up (when these issues arise). If we’re ready, we’re prepared to respond,” said Robbins, a PWWERC volunteer. “When this (adventure park situation) began, people felt disempowered. They felt helpless. They were frightened. They were confused. No one knew what to do. They wanted to do something, but no one knew how to even begin. This provides a comforting touchstone, and gives them ways that they can get involved so they feel that they’re doing something, that they’re in control again.”