Clark County Citizens United, Inc.

10/22/2026

Nick Shirley exposes the government waste in California with the construction of a high speed light rail to nowhere. Is that really what the people of Oregon and Washington want with the proposed Interstate Bridge Replacement? Taxpayers said no to such a project three times with their votes. Yet, it continues to move forward. What our communities need is a third bridge, and no one can deny that. That is where our hard earned taxes should be going.

10/22/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwBCPBNe_60

(0:00) Nick Shirley debuts his new video at the All-In Summit: "Ins...

10/06/2026

Today, October 5, 2026, the Clark County Council just voted to remove the cluster abiility on agriculture 20 acre zoned land. Currently if you had 40 acres or more, one can cluster to create two or more small lots in that zone. Now, that has been removed. Clustering allowed a landowner to make a 1to 2 arcre lot for a family member to own the land and live on the parent farm property. Now that is gone. How does this encourage the younger generation to live on the family property as they help their parents farm or take over the farming operations. The county mantra is "save the farmland", but it is not "save the farmer". Increment by increment, private property rights are being eroded by this council. Councilor Belkot voted no, and supported the cluster concept.

09/30/2026

Clark County Citizens United, Inc. (CCCU) knows the Washington Department of Ecology has numerous documents describing what is expected of each county when they create their Stormwater Management Plan. Within those documents, the DOE describes a wetland, and that definition is to be used by counties and staff as they determine a wetland at the local level. But that is not happening here in Clark County, Washington.

The Shoreline Management Act has a definite description of what a wetland is and what a wetland isn't. But county staff are not using this definition, or any definition at all. Instead they make one up for every permit application. Clark County Staff have gone rogue, and write laws as they go along, knowing that they wield great power with these flawed decisions that control a project. Often they wait until the project has begun, before they regulate it to such a degree that the cost to the landowner becomes unbearable They are going outside their jurisdictional bounds, which is controlled by these state laws. When a county staff performs this way, the County Manager must step in and stop those illegal actions. It is the Manager's responsibility to protect the public from this kind of treatment.

The following Washington state regulations are what county staff is to adhere to, and they cannot stray from these directives. CCCU has never seen staff follow these rules in all of the projects that we have encountered. Something has got to change. The following are the rules that govern a wetland. A staff can fabricate all sorts of text to argue the matter, but the law is very clear about what the definition of a wetland is, and what it is not. The simple guidelines of water, hydric soil and hydric plants should be enough.

An area is classified as a wetland if it meets three key parameters: hydrology, hydric soils, and hydrophytic vegetation. These criteria ensure that the area is inundated or saturated with water, supports specific types of soil, and has vegetation adapted to wet conditions
Key Parameters of Wetlands. Understanding these parameters is crucial for wetland identification.

Hydrology — The area must be inundated or saturated with water for a significant part of the growing season.
Hydric Soils — The soil must be classified as hydric, indicating it is formed under conditions of saturation.
Hydrophytic Vegetation — The vegetation must consist predominantly of species that thrive in saturated soil conditions.

09/29/2026

The membership of Clark County Citizens United (CCCU), Inc. has repeatedly expressed concerns over the lack of communications with county staff and behaviors regarding their actions when permitting rural development. Staff have repeatedly demonstrated apparent incompetence, misconduct, lack of respect for private property rights and for the health and well being of those that are most vulnerable. They are subjecting people to undue personal and monetary risk. CCU's membership has been astounded at what we have witnessed.

1. Violations of trespass are rampant.
2. Collusion with GIS staff has corrupted county and state maps.
3. Expert reports written for critical areas, made by qualified professionals which landowners are obligated to consult, are routinely overridden and excluded by staff.
4. The level of disregard for the laws regarding state and federal Categorical Exemptions is common practice.
5. The elimination of historical development documents and determinations after three years, critical to present day permitting, fails to allow transparent government decision making
6. The disregard for the safety, health and welfare of the citizens is outrageous.

CCCU has highlighted case examples of egregious staff violations targeting rural property owners. They are sent out as testimony to the elected officials and indexed in the Public Record as we find them. It is important for Clark County citizens to know just how erroneously county staff conducts the business of rural permitting.

Without question, the most egregious attempt to circumvent the law is how the county appears to have colluded with extremist organizations to shape public policy and institute regulatory actions that go directly against CCCU's Superior Court and Court of Appeals Division II Rulings. The Poyfair Remand said, in part, the county cannot put a cap (limit) on rural growth.

Over the past several years, CCCU has testified and submitted into the public record, suspected illegal activities used in the process for rural permits. We are seeing historical permitting documents for rural developments being eliminated after 3 years. RCW 42.56 and 42.56.030 Public Records Act and RCW 40.14. requires retention of all public records submitted to any public agency for all forms of communications. What CCCU sees are maps being rewritten, improper critical area designations, ill-informed staff reports and faulty and fabricated designations. Staff appears to be driven by some unauthorized ideology rather than by science and the laws. Even more problematic, they fail to correspond with the citizens.

The contempt for the people, for their safety, health and welfare, the public state and federal laws, and transparency is alarming. CCCU continues to question those who set county policy . We continue to monitor public records after it was discovered that staff had deleted substantive public testimony by CCCU's membership.

The staff must make ethical choices as there are many reasons to do so. The records of CCCU's testimony show one egregious example after another of violations of trespass, faulty and flawed data used in determinations, open flouting of state and federal laws for categorical exemptions, and a patent disregard for human safety. Public health and safety needs to have elevated stature, and rank above environmental concerns. This alone shows a general disdain for the public in the county's permitting processes. There is more than enough evidence of misconduct.

09/29/2026

A Temporary Dwelling Hardship Application was filed by couple and the grandchildren, with Clark County on May 26, 2026 on behalf of their grandmother and mother, a woman with urgent medical care needs That care is to be provided by them, as her child and caretakers, It is now September 28, 2026, going on five months later, and the county has done nothing to aid this vunerable elderly adult in her housing needs. Instead county agents have fabricated a wetland on the non-hydric property, to put a complete stop to the process. In the meantime, the elderly woman is currently living in a small travel trailer, used when she came here from Wisconsin five months ago. They were told the hardship application was to be a timely process. In the meantime, she has fallen and fractured her hip, and the caretakers blame Clark County for their refusal to allow her decent housing. All former 2017 county development documents determined there were no wetlands on this parcel, that has no hydric soil and a 15% to 25% slope. Yet, all of a sudden there is this massive wetland right in the area needed for the hardship mobile home access and placement.

Clark County Citizens United, Inc. (CCCU) sent the Clark County Council an email on September 17, 2026, with extensive documentation of proof there is no wetland and a request that the permit be issued to this medically compromised elderly adult, as soon as possible. At this date, neither the caretakers, representing the mother, or CCCU has received any response from any county councilor or county staff. Is this kind of treatment what we pay these people to do?

09/16/2026

Neither Clark County Citizens United, Inc. or the public, has any idea what the final Clark County Comprehensive Plan Update will look like. The FEIS is vague, and CCCU suspects the result will be the same as with other Comp Plan updates. They all endured major changes that were sprung on the citizens at the last minute, with no recourse for meaningful public input against what was adopted. Particularly egregious was the original 1994 Growth Management Act Comprehensive Plan with the Agri-forest massive down-zoning of 36,000 acres, which financially crippled many land owners. In the 2016 Plan, the Preferred Alternative 4 was thrown out and replaced by a mystery Plan predetermined behind the scenes, at the last minute. Alternative 4 was a county wide process, with county wide citizens support, that gave something to everyone. This bait and switch illegal activity has become commonplace for this county. That said, CCCU asks the Clark County Council to correct flawed defects in the Plan, and start with concerns numbered here.

1. No meaningful documentation shows the county has performed any effective planning for the rural areas, particularly as it relates to a variety of affordable housing. The Growth Management Act mandates that this be done. The county must plan for rural housing, as long as it is not urban in nature. That is a requirement of the GMA.

2. The FEIS claims all land in the county is good for commercial agriculture and must be preserved, while the county continuously removes it from inventory by way of Conservation Futures land purchases, Legacy land purchases, buffers, and permanent conservation covenants on private land. Thousands of acres, historically used for agriculture, are now gone and turned into fallow waste land.

3. The county claims much work was done to determine viable agriculture land, yet it failed to comply with mandatory GMA language that says to first use the Soil Survey of Clark County, Washington published by the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service and the Washinron Agricultural Experiment Station NRCS – USDA Clark County 1972 Soils Manual. This document describes exactly where and what land is good for farming, with production charts for each soil type. Instead, the county hired a $140,000 consultant firm, which said all Clark County land is good for farming, which is simply not true. The GMA requires long term commercial significant agriculture.
4. The Office of Financial Management (OFM) 95/5 urban/rural population projection formula, used by the county, was illegal in the past, and continues to be illegal. The courts clearly said the formula is erroneous and cannot be used to cap rural growth. But the county continues to ignore the 1997 Superior Court order by Judge Edwin Poyfair and the 1999 Washington Court of Appeals Division II court orders. Clark County continues to apply that erroneous formula regardless of the law, leaving no future for the rural people.

5. The county is intent on taking all land in the county without paying for it, outside the urban growth areas by way of zoning and onerous regulations. So much so, it fabricates wetlands and critical lands to generate massive buffers and permanent conservation covenants on entire parcels, putting the county in complete control of private land. Constitutional property rights are being trampled and ignored. The erroneous buffers and permanent conservation covenant must be removed from code.

Clark County has much to do to rectify their mistakes in the Comprehensive Plan, and the sooner they begin doing that, the better. The Washington State Growth Management Act, and the United States Constitution, mandate protection of private property rights and just compensation for private property government takings. Clark County can start with complying with these state and federal laws.

08/19/2026

Clark County Citizens United, Inc.:

CCCU is a grass roots registered non-profit corporation funded by local people. CCCU is committed to limited government land use intrusion and supports policies that treat all residents fairly and equitably. CCCU has no paid employees and all work, except legal
services, is done by volunteers. CCCU is completely dependent on donations from those sharing our concerns and who want to
help. CCCU successfully worked with the Well Drillers Association, Building Industry of Washington, Association of Realtors, Farm
Forestry Association, Washington State Land Use Study Commission, The Grange, Identity Clark County, Legislators, building industry and many private citizens. CCCU has been effective in preventing numerous proposed and onerous
county policies. CCCU is committed to a track record on behalf of all citizens, against policies that do not represent the people.

Clark County has a multi-million dollar 20 year Comprehensive
Land Use Plan that is bad for all of us! CCCU, is committed to
a Plan that responds to the will of the people. County policy should not restrict your housingchoices and individual rights. County policy should be committed to serving the citizens
needs, unless there is a clear public safety and welfare concern.
This Plan fails to meet this goal. The people must have a say as to how they live and work in Clark County. Arbitrary policies are not good policies!

The Plan applies to all county citizens. Current land use policies have gone too far in restricting how you live, work and play.
This is done via growth boundaries, higher density in cities, limiting transportation, limiting land use, expensive mandatory regulation and arbitrary large lot rural and resource zoning This results in higher taxes and more cost for everyone. The Plan creates "open space" at the expense of the people. Landowners previously zoned 1, 2.5 and 5 acres, suddenly found the land zoned 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 acre zones! This prevents new people from buying a few acres to live a rural lifestyle or raise a family. Rural living restrictions continue in the Plan and CCCU wants more reasonable policies. Resource land was created by "aerial photography and staff interpretation", and not by prime soil and its ability to raise crops.

Additional regulation in the Plan increases housing costs and property taxes for everyone. Such ordinances are an attempt to stop growth and increase demands for housing. Ordinances requiring costly public water hookups, connection to sewers, and artificially limiting the supply of land increases the price for homes and forces people into high price apartments and condos. As housing costs increase, property taxes increase. The people must have a say as to how they live and work in Clark County. Arbitrary policies are not good policies!

Clark County Citizens United, Inc. Needs Your Support!

We ask you for financial support so CCCU can continue to represent your interests. A $100 donation for legal fees, $25.00 member
fee or whatever you can afford, will help support CCCU's efforts to assure Clark County is responsive and accountable to its citizens.

On line donations can be made on the CCCU website

clarkcountycitizensunited.org

Yes! I (We) want to support/join CCCU

Legal aid contribution................$100.00____
CCCU Membership.....................$25.00_____
Enclosed is a check for $________________

Name________________________________
Address______________________________
City _________________________________
State ____________________Zip_________
Email:_______________________________

Mail to: CCCU, INC.
P.O. Box 2188
Battle Ground, Wash. 98604

Phone: 360-667-0516
Email: [email protected]

Clark County Citizens United, Inc.
Thanks You for your Support!

07/23/2026

A recent Columbian newspaper article quotes Democrat, Senator Patty Murray commenting about the cost of the Iran war. She says, "This war is spiraling out of control". Instead, she should be saying that the cost for the Interstate I-5 Bridge replacement is spiraling out of control. Just think, the whole Iran war is costing 37.5 billon dollars. But just a simple bridge replacement is approximately half that cost, at 15 billion dollars. Patty Murray clearly has her priorities in the wrong place. She should be thinking how she can save money for her local constituents and those who put her in office. She should not be complaining about the cost for the U.S. military to keep our nation safe. They are doing a good job, and they don't need her to get in the way of their mission. Her priorities should be here at home.

07/14/2026

The only voice we have is at the ballot box. When Clark County voters elected the Charter form of government, it gave the power to a County Manager. Little did they know what the real life impacts that action would make on their lives. The same is true when they chose the "non-partisan" title for those running for county offices. Now, Clark County government functions in a vacuum, with staff controlling the ship. The only power the people have is at the ballot box, and their responsibility to vote is critical to their well being.

Non-partisan does not mean neutral. when it comes to politics. All candidates have a political view they embrace, and voters must determine if that view aligns with theirs. Currently, the Clark County Council has four Democrats and one Republican on the board. No one knows the political view of the County Manager, who controls the county.

The Clark County Charter Review Commission is in session and has adopted a series of bi-partisan amendments to the Charter, that will be on the ballot. Voters are encouraged to support them. Likewise, candidates running for various offices will also need your vote. The offices that have the greatest impact on your daily life begin with the Washington State Supreme Court. Their decisions not only affect your life, but also the lives of all Washingtonians. Justice Dave Larson, Pos. 5, deserves your vote, followed by Scott Edward or Laura Christensen Colberg, Pos. 1, David Stevens, Pos. 3 and Todd Bloom, Pos. 7.

Not knowing the many candidate’s political views, it’s hard to know who to support. But many with a record of working for the people, deserve your vote. They include Eileen Quiring O’Brien Auditor, Kevin Roegner CPU Commissioner, Michelle Belkot Councilor Dist. 2, Bryan Shull Councilor Dist. 1, Peter Silliman Councilor Dist 5, Scott Weber Clerk, Peter Van Nortwick Assessor, John Braun U.S. House, John Ley and Stephanie McClintock Rep. Dist. 18, Sara Mittelman Rep. Dist 49, Peter Abbarno and Ed Orcott Rep. Dist. 20 and David Steube Rep. Dist. 17.

The only voice we have is at the ballot box, and I urge all legal registered voters, both young and old, to vote.