Camas North Shore vision beginning to take shape

Preliminary land-use concepts for Camas' North Shore show a mix of residential, commercial, mixed-use and business park-light industrial zones abutting a thick band of city-owned green space along the northern shores of Lacamas Lake. Camas Planning Manager Robert Maul and WSP USA consultant Nicole McDermott presented the draft concepts to the city's Parks and Recreation Commission on Jan. 26. Camas annexed the roughly 800-acre area known as North Shore into the city limits in 2010, with plans to use the mostly agricultural area for a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses. "North Shore is in the city limits and has comprehensive plan designation and zoning," Maul explained during the Parks and Recreation Commission's Jan. 26 meeting. "It could move forward with development today if somebody wanted to do that." Instead, city officials and many community members hope the North Shore will develop into a unique, forward-thinking area of Camas known for its abundance of green spaces and recreational opportunities; natural beauty and environmental protection; walkability; mix of housing options; small, locally owned businesses; and light industrial business parks located further away from the lake, on the northern end of the North Shore. The vision is part of the city's subarea planning work on the North Shore that kicked off in 2019, with a series of meetings with Camas residents, students, North Shore property owners and other stakeholders designed to gauge the community's vision for the North Shore area. "We had a lot of public outreach in Phase 1, beginning in 2019," McDermott told the parks and recreation commissioners on Jan. 26. That outreach included two online surveys that gathered input from about 1,100 community members, as well as listening forums, a workshop with high school students and information tables set up at Camas events such as the weekly Camas Farmers Market. The community told Camas officials they wanted North Shore to be a unique area with an abundance of natural, green spaces and a diverse array of housing types as well as commercial and light-industrial business parks that might provide more living-wage jobs in the technology or health care sectors. "One thing we heard was that North Shore should strive to maintain Camas' small-town feel," McDermott said. "We heard all of these things over and over, so they became part of the vision statement." In September 2020, after gathering input from thousands of community members and gaining approval from the city's planning commission, the Camas City Council adopted a vision statement for the North Shore and established a steering committee as well as a community advisory committee to help ensure the public's wishes for the North Shore would come through in the second phase of the region's subarea planning. The city and its WSP consultants moved into the second phase of subarea planning on the North Shore in the fall of 2021, with the goal of implementing North Shore-specific zoning and land-use standards. "This area is unique, so we need to develop unique standards that are not like other parts of Camas," McDermott explained. McDermott said the city and its consultants will reach out to the public on the Engage Camas website later this month and hold another virtual community-wide event in March or April "to get community feedback on the preferred land use and transportation plan and draft design guidelines." Maul and McDermott presented two North Shore land-use options - Option A and Option B - to members of the Parks and Recreation Commission on Jan. 26. "These are not the final product," Maul said. "The public will have ample opportunity to comment on the preferred alternatives derived from this process." "This is where we're starting," McDermott added. "These maps will go to the community for their feedback." In a letter sent to Maul on Jan. 12, McDermott and WSP consultant Emma Johnson explained that consultants had used the city's North Shore vision statement to guide the two land-use options -- identifying and preserving views to the treed hillside and Lacamas Lake; creating a "green corridor" along the shoreline to buffer the lake from nearby development; clustering homes near schools and commercial center and providing sidewalks, pedestrian trails and bike paths to help make a more walkable and bikeable community; planning for diverse types of housing for all incomes, household sizes and life stages; encouraging commercial zoning near high-traffic corridors such as Northeast Everett Street; encouraging small, local businesses that would serve North Shore residents and businesses; planning transportation routes and roadway improvements that will "minimize traffic and maximize safety;" and striving to maintain a "small-town feel" in the North Shore. The consultants also considered the city's recently adopted Housing Action Plan, which showed Camas is facing a substantial population increase over the next two decades, with nearly 12,000 new residents (a 47 percent increase) expected to move to Camas by 2040. "An estimated 4,589 dwelling units are needed to accommodate new residents," McDermott pointed out. "And a variety of housing types are needed to provide residents the ability to select housing that best meets the needs of their household and their budget." Likewise, the consultants said, about 40 percent of these new housing units will need to be affordable for C amas residents with low- or moderate incomes "with a mix of rental and for-sale housing." The consultants also used employment projections to help craft the land-use options for the North Shore area, and said the city's future job growth is "predicted to occur primarily in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, government and professional and business services," while manufacturing jobs, which already dropped from 46 percent of all Camas jobs in 2002 to 26 percent of Camas jobs in 2018, are expected to continue to decline. Likewise, the consultants said, the city "would benefit from increasing the number of higher-paying jobs in the city, which would allow for reduced commutes and commuting costs, and provide additional tax revenue." Currently, the consultants noted, "there is a high level of commuting into and out of the city by workers and residents to access employment," with many residents who have higher-paying jobs commuting outside of Camas while residents with lower-paying jobs tend to work inside the city. The North Shore can help provide this mix of diverse housing and business park-light industrial the city needs to accommodate its population growth over the next 20 years, the consultants said. The draft land-use options presented to the parks and recreation commissioners on Jan. 26 show a mix of residential, commercial, green space and light industrial zones. While both land-use concepts would devote 19 percent of the North Shore space to business park-light industrial lands, and 4 percent to schools, the options differ on the percentage of residential, mixed-use and parks-open space zoning that would make up the North Shore: In Option A, the North Shore would include 232 acres (23%) of parks and open space; 187 acres (19%) of business park-light industrial land; 132 acres (13%) of lower-density residential land; 79 acres (8%) of higher-density residential land; 75 acres (8%) of mixed-use land; and 40 acres (4%) for schools. Option B, on the other hand, has less parks and open space, with 160 acres (16%) devoted to green space and 192 acres (19%) for business park-light industrial land; 176 acres (18%) for lower-density residential uses; 125 acres (13%) for higher-density residential uses; 49 acres (5%) for mixed-use; and 40 acres (4%) for schools. Both concepts show very preliminary ideas for main roadways, but are - as McDermott and Maul pointed out to parks and recreation commissioners last week -- just a starting point. "This shows main routes and collector (roadways) at a very high level," McDermott said. "Obviously, there would be more local roads developed." The city's North Shore consultants and planning staff are still working with Camas Parks and Recreation Director Trang Lam to identify more opportunities for green space, trails and "pocket parks" inside the North Shore area, McDermott added. "More green space will be added to these plans as they're refined," she said during the Jan. 26 commission meeting. "There are some critical areas (on the land-use concepts) and some are developable, but there is a lot of land that will be undevelopable and protected in green space." The public will be able to comment on the land-use concepts later this month. For more information, visit the North Shore page on the city's Engage Camas website at engagecamas.com/north-shore-subarea-plan.

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