During a Dec. 12 Vancouver City Council meeting, council members voted to declare an emergency to approve a six-month moratorium on new applications for large warehouse and distribution facilities in Vancouver.
According to a news release from the city, the moratorium was enacted to enable planning staff to study the emerging trend of applications for warehouse and distribution facilities in Vancouver. These types of developments are currently allowed in Light and High Industrial zoning districts. According to the news release, these facilities typically have very low employment per acre ratio and are not listed as a priority sector in the Clark County Economic Development Plan, which the city of Vancouver adopted in 2017.
This type of development, which typically involves a significant amount of large truck traffic, may also be inconsistent with the goals of the city’s newly adopted Climate Action Plan, according to the news release.
“The increase in the growth of e-commerce, and the increasing trend toward larger and larger distribution facilities is concerning particularly since these facilities vast quantities of limited industrially zoned land,” said Director of Community Development Chad Eiken, in the news release. “The moratorium will allow for concerns related to long-term impacts from mega-warehouses to be studied, better understood and addressed as needed.”
Mike Bomar, director of economic development at the Port of Vancouver USA, said that they were unaware of the moratorium prior to the Dec. 12 city council meeting.
“We are actively working with city staff to better understand the purpose of this action as well as its impacts to current and future operations at the port,” Bomar said.
Although the moratorium is only for the city of Vancouver, there are several neighboring ports in the Clark County area that may or may not be affected by this moratorium, depending on if any companies seeking to build large warehouse or distribution facilities look to these other ports if they cannot be in Vancouver.
David Ripp, CEO at the Port of Camas-Washougal, said the city of Vancouver’s moratorium does not impact the Port of Camas-Washougal’s development plans. He said the port’s buildings and developments are less than 100,000 square feet and they generally do not target warehousing and distribution as part of the port’s tenant base or development.
“Our current buildings range from approximately 5,000 to 50,000 square feet and tenant industry varies from manufacturing, design, fabrication, food processing and services,” Ripp said. “The most recent land sale to United Precision Corporation (UPC) will be a two-phase ~100,000-square-foot facility, but they are in the aerospace industry and provide engineering design, machining and fabrication. They are not a warehousing or logistics provider. Clark county has witnessed significant growth the last several years in the industrial real estate sector. Each industry impacts our logistics ‘ecosystem’ differently on a local basis and it’s essential we plan how to accommodate growth that supports the movement of freight and jobs for our region’s future.”
According to the city of Vancouver’s news release, CBRE estimates that an additional 330 million square feet of warehouse space is needed in the United States to meet the e-commerce demand into 2025. On the I-5 corridor, Vancouver is a prime location for this type of development. Eight proposed large warehouse projects are currently in the development review process, which will consume 205 acres of industrial land. While the moratorium will not affect the projects that are already vested to current zoning regulations, national trends suggest that additional proposals can be expected.
State law (RCW 36.70A.390 and RCW 35.63.200) allows for a six-month maximum moratorium on land uses, with one six-month extension if necessary. According to state law, a public hearing will be held no later than Feb. 6, 2023, or within 60 days of the moratorium’s adoption.
