Plan would add 77 homes, commercial building off NW Camas Meadows Drive

The city of Camas has determined the proposed Camas Meadows Hole 9 mixed-use development, which proposes building 77 detached and attached single-family homes as well as a 6,600-square-foot commercial building off Northwest Camas Meadows Drive, will not require an environmental impact statement.

The city published its “determination of non-significance” (DNS), meaning the development would “not have a probable significant adverse impact on the environment” on June 15.

The city will collect comments about the proposed DNS decision through Thursday, June 29.

The applicant, Kess Romano of the Vancouver-based Romano Development, Inc., has proposed subdividing the 13.81-acre parcel located on the north side of Northwest Camas Meadows Drive, southeast of the road’s intersection with Northeast Goodwin Road, into 77 single-family lots and one commercial lot. The proposal includes covering about 64% of the site with “impervious surfaces … including homes, buildings, driveways, streets, parking spaces and landscaping features such as patios and walkways.” The applicant has stated that they will prepare and implement stormwater and erosion-control plans and take other measures to reduce the site’s erosion, including “minimizing disturbance of soils outside of the construction area; retaining existing vegetation to the maximum extent possible; installing sediment fencing on the downhill side of construction; covering soil stockpiles when not in use; and applying temporary and permanent vegetative cover as soon as possible.”

The applicant has said that, “according to the Clark County GIS MapsOnline, (there are) no mapped wetlands, streams or ponds on the project site” but is a 500-foot pond “north of the subject’s site’s northern boundary.” The site does not lie within a 100-year floodplain and will not require any surface water withdrawals or diversions, according to the city’s DNS report.

The site does include evergreen trees, shrubs, grasses, Himalayan blackberries and deciduous trees, including alders, maples, aspens and Oregon white oaks.

According to the report, “the planned development will remove most of the vegetation on site, including the existing evergreen trees, grass, shrubs and five Oregon white oak(s).”

AKS Engineering & Forestry, according to the report, “has prepared a tree plan and preliminary white oak mitigation plan, which demonstrates measures to provide mitigation through the removal of invasive species, planting of Oregon white oak seedlings and 2-inch caliper saplings and planting a combination of native, fruit-bearing shrubs.”

The report also states that the applicant, through AKS Engineering & Forestry, “has prepared a tree plan and preliminary white oak mitigation plan, which demonstrates measures to preserve as many trees as possible on site, plant new trees with the development, and enhance the vegetation of on- and off-site critical habitat for oak habitat mitigation.”

According to the report, the site does not have any threatened or endangered species, but is within the Pacific Flyway, a migratory route for ducks, geese and other migratory waterfowl, and does have songbirds, deer, rabbits and squirrels on the site.

The report states that the “proposed development will protect as many trees on site as possible. existing wildlife habitats associated with the neighboring golf course will be undisturbed. The development will include landscaping consistent with the (city’s code) standards. Additionally, AKS Engineering & Forestry has prepared a mitigation plan showing off-site habitat enhancement to offset impacts of the residential development.”

The project will construct three public streets, two alleyways and two private access points. The development would connect to Northwest Camas Meadows Drive.

The applicant’s transportation consultant prepared a traffic impact study that showed the residential development “generate 955 average daily trips with 50 a.m. peak-hour trips and 107 p.m. peak-hour trips.”

The public may send comments regarding the city’s environmental impact decision via email (communitydevelopment@cityofcamas.us) or mail (City of Camas SEPA official, Community Development Department, 616 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas, WA 98607). Comments must be received by June 29.