Skamania County restricts large recreational facilities in West End

Skamania County’s West End adventure park saga seems to have come to an end.

Skamania County Ordinance 2024-02, enacted into law by Skamania’s Board of County Commissioners, July 18, contains modified zoning language and land-use changes that disallow large-scale recreational facilities — such as the adventure park that a property developer floated the idea of constructing on his rural Washougal land in 2023 — to be built in the County’s West End.

“As far as we understand it, as far as the proposal was originally conveyed, (the adventure park) would not be allowed in the West End (under the new ordinance),” said Sarah Perry, secretary of the Preserving Washougal and West End Rural Character (PWWERC) nonprofit that has been speaking out against property developer Derek Hoyte’s bid to build an adventure park featuring a mountain coaster, zip line course, net park and event venue, on a 150-acre plot of land at 4101 Canyon Creek Road in Skamania County’s West End neighborhood.

PWWERC members claim that Skamania County adopted zoning changes in 2021 that conflicted with the West End Comprehensive Community Sub-Area Plan, created by more than 250 West End residents from 2001 to 2004, and adopted by Skamania County in 2007, which 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.”

“Ordinance 21-04 added a lot of conditional uses under zoning areas that specifically affect residents,” Perry told The Post-Record in 2023. “Before those ordinances were passed, outdoor recreational facilities were not allowed at all in the zoning areas, and now they’re conditionally allowed. This created a loophole for that adventure park proposal.”

PWWERC Director Patrick Januszewski said the ordinance brings the County’s zoning regulations into “complete alignment” with the West End plan.

“I would say this definitely brings the zoning back into alignment with the comprehensive plan, which was the goal,” Perry said.

Previously, Skamania County defined an outdoor recreation facility as a facility provided for outdoor recreation, encompassing a wide range of activities. Ordinance 2024-02 amends the Skamania County Code to include an updated definition of “outdoor recreation facility,” as well as a separate definition for “large-scale recreational facility.”

The new ordinance states that any outdoor recreational facility “shall not include any applications that have significant traffic impacts, increase noise levels, or which, for any other reason, are inconsistent with the vision statement of the related comprehensive or subarea plan.”

The new ordinance also defines a large-scale recreational facility as “a facility for outdoor activities that are likely, due to the nature of the activity or the commercial nature of the proposal, to have greater noise, traffic, or other impacts on the surrounding community than an outdoor recreational facility. Examples include, but are not.limited to, ziplines, aerial canopies, aerial nets, bungee jumping, mountain coasters, challenge courses, motorsports tracks, and other such activities, and any activities that are primarily commercial in nature,” and states that “a large-scale recreational facility may only be permitted in areas that are able to provide buffers from residential areas that will eliminate traffic, noise, lighting, or other impacts on neighboring residential properties. A large-scale recreational facility is deemed to include all accessory uses, including parking areas, private roads or any buildings that facilitate or support the facility.”

Any proposed large-scale recreational facilities will require a public presentation before the Skamania County Planning Commission and will be considered conditional uses.

“The biggest key is separating out that (large-scale recreational facility) definition so that it covers those uses that are different from normal, non-invasive outdoor recreation, things like hiking, sports, swimming, rock climbing, things that typically are not going to cause any sort of intrusion on your neighbors, excessive noise, that sort of thing,” Perry said. “Now (the County has) two separate approaches to outdoor to recreational facilities.”

The amendments “provide guidelines for the development of recreational facilities related to Skamania County’s abundant recreational, scenic, and natural amenities in a manner that is respectful of adjoining land uses and consistent with the (West End) Comprehensive Plan,” according to the ordinance.

David Waymire, Skamania County’s public works and community development director, told The Post-Record that he and his planning staff had put a great deal of time into creating the new ordinance.

“Ultimately, the ordinance is what the largest portion of the public participation was asking for,” Waymire said. “In a situation like this, it’s difficult to get all perspectives, but we did our best with numerous public meetings. The ordinance was proposed and drafted with this public input. We hope this will allow things to remain basically like they are now and have been for many years.”

The County also developed a new land-use matrix that dictates where large-scale recreational facilities can be sited.

“Across the county, there are nine zones where large-scale recreational facilities can be conditionally considered. The West End is not one of those areas,” Perry said. “Our goal is not to prevent people from doing anything in the West End. This language is tighter and provides more protection, but it doesn’t totally restrict people from doing the things that they want to do. One of the community’s biggest concerns was the stress on infrastructure and services, especially volunteer services. This adds some of those standards into the language, so there has to be mitigation strategies in place.”

The alleged misalignment between the County’s zoning regulations and the West End plan was thrust into the limelight after West End residents found out about Hoyte’s adventure park concept. Hoyte, who said he purchased the property in 2022 as an investment property and possible home site, envisioned “(striking) a balance of providing experiences ranging from excitement to tranquility and from recharging to relaxation, all while being sensitive to the surrounding area.”

Hoyte invited residents living within 500 feet of the property to a community meeting in August 2023 to discuss the proposal, but canceled the meeting due to space limitations.

West End residents immediately voiced their concerns about Hoyte’s plans, claiming that the park would present a slew of problems and negatively impact traffic, quality of life, the environment, wildlife, the local economy and emergency services.

Hoyte told The Post-Record this month that “nothing actually was or has been proposed for the investment property (he) purchased in Skamania County’s West End subarea back in 2022.”

“My opinion at this juncture is that life is a true blessing,” Hoyte said. “And I’m blessed simply to be able to participate in the economic opportunities which can be found around just about any corner here in the good old US of A.”

The PWWERC held several meetings throughout 2023, some of which drew more than 100 people, to present information about what they believed were Hoyte’s plans to develop the property into an adventure park, and to give information about Skamania County’s zoning regulations.

“The participation of the community, people actually showing up, having the courage to voice their opinion, was, I think, definitive in (our) success,” Januszewski said. “I don’t think we could have (influenced change) if we didn’t have people coming to the meetings, speaking up and participating in the process. The residents really showed their opinions and their desires to live in a peaceful area.”

County commissioners enacted a temporary moratorium on recreational facilities development in October 2023, after West End residents asked the County to review and modify the definitions of “recreational facilities” and “recreational activities” in its zoning code.

Hoyte told The Post-Record in November 2023, that he approved of the moratorium and was “rethinking” his plans for the property.

“We had some ideas that we were exploring last summer, but we’ve done a complete reset … and there is no solid proposal for anything at this point in time,” Hoyte said in November 2023. “All of it is in draft mode. We have obviously received a lot of feedback, which has impacted any potential plans that we were considering and put them in a different light.”

Skamania’s planning staff held nine workshops with the County’s planning commission from November 2023 to April 2024, to “discuss how the zoning code changes of 2021 could better support the Comprehensive Plan’s vision for recreation.”

In March, Waymire proposed a new definition for recreational facilities that would include new large-scale recreational facility land-use terms and definitions; new supplementary development land-use standards for recreational facilities; and amendments to implement the new land-use terms.

Earlier this summer, the Skamania County Commission approved the proposals at a public hearing after listening to comments from more than 10 West End residents, who spoke in favor of the zoning changes.

“We must consider why we choose to live here,” Commissioner Asa Leckie said. “Our reasons must be tempered with adapting to property owners’ rights and the desired use of their properties. Cities and densely populated municipalities have the ability to absorb, recover from, and prepare for future shocks, such as economic and environmental. As tourism is a particularly vulnerable sector, tourism should be critically evaluated for its impact and sustainability on the local populace and economy.”

The Commission also voted to lift the moratorium, effective July 18.

“(The process) was a rollercoaster,” Januszewski said. “I think that last public hearing was truly the turning point where it all kind of came together. When the Commission finally voted in the approach that we were pushing for, it really was a sigh of relief, a huge relief, to finally get that support from our leadership in the community.”