BCYX – report at end of meeting as Randy late – now in fire season, good passenger count, lower fares as shorter runs. Have redone the big coach. Looking forward to Christmas season

RailWorks to start delivering stuff to Chelatchie. Bridge work on #25 and rail rehab.

800 ton of rock delivered

Randy talked about the poor condition of northern track and how much it will cost to repair

County Activities: Set to start work on bridge repairs Sept 13, will work 10 hr days, M – Sat until October 15. RR bed rehab – no updates at this time

Dave Rowe is now on RR Board. Sept 17 County meeting – 3 new board members to be approved. New board members do need to go through Open Public Meeting training.

The council agreed to hold a public hearing on the subject of mining overlay vs fighting the GMA in near future.

Discussion on why the county did not think they were in noncompliance – had to do with because there was no actual project named, thought they did not an EIS- Environmental Impact Study.

County could be waiting over a year to get legal determination from the State

Back and forth discussion about rock availability, costs/revenue in our County, who is opposing the overlay. Mention of article and attorney of Friends of Clark County that was all about preserving farm land in Clark County – speakers do not identify themselves.

A couple of speakers talked about how poor the land is in North County for farming.

Quite a wide-range discussion about all types of concerns with the RR and PVJR (Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad)

Revenue does not come from the RR – revenue comes from the property being developed by industry and then property taxes flow, plus jobs.

RR presentation and Open House: going to put a hold on this at this time. However,

We do need take into consideration North County and learn about the pros and cons of RR activity. Need a factfinding study.

Guest Speakers from Clark County Citizens United: Speaking on property in North County

(No formal introduction, sound poor, could not catch names)

Back to 1994, GMA, first Comp Plan

Rural Centers in North County – 13 of them

Lawsuit ensued and centers taken out

1995 – got half of Rural Centers back

Hundreds of acres next to RR, very little impact to landowners, 3 landowners did not sell easement to County – will only allow RR.

2008 – County was going to abandon RR and built a trail

Website still shows 33 miles of planned trail Rails to Trails

Cost to County would be prohibitive to put this trail in

Yamhill County in Oregon sued over Rails to Trails and the County won. Trails taken off, landowners prevailed.

Ag land all down by Battle Ground, NE County shows forest land, not commercial farming land, only good for small/truck farms

2 dairy farms (sizeable) left in Clark County

Lagler Farm is not class A farmland

You can save the farmland but you need the farmers to farm. . .Only kind of farms you are going to have in this county are small farms

Discussion about how the decline of farming happened over the years. One reason is that processors left.

Yes, there are many property owners next to the RR DO want to sell to the RR

GMA does say you must preserve resource land and that includes mining.

Developers say that the County staff keep changing the maps so developers don’t know where rock really is. However, the speaker’s position is that the best rock is at Chelatchie – it is the ideal place in all of the county

Timber industry wants to use rail cars rather than trucking.

Then conversation veered into round abouts and about how small they are and difficult for large trucks.

Group Thought:

Do not understand the objections to mining. All of the long-time land owners want it - not necessarily the newer landowners.

Very little dust

National company (Storedahl) so they are a good company and will follow all of the requirements

Those that oppose have a Vancouver address – not North County

The rock in question is the best rock in the County

The Community Planning Dept of the County is not in favor of the RR development

Building Industry needs and wants Local rock

Ag land could develop, grow and use the RR for movement of products

Development will not affect the availability of water in our county

Never run out of water unless the Columbia dries up

Do not understand Battle Ground’s position against the overlay/development

A bit of pushback on the above thinking, water is not that easy to get to North County for development.

Private wells are surface well

Would have to run pipelines up from the river – this is being done in some places – Yacolt and Amboy

Yacolt has applied to put a sewer in and County did not approve – lack of treatment plant

Speakers did not realize the condition of the track above Battle Ground and how much it would take to get it up to speed.

Question: Can the Board do a study on what has been talked about. Answer – just do what the speakers did – go on website, GIS, etc.

There are some finer points that the speakers are not familiar with – costs, expenses, revenue. They are not up on details on BCYX. And the costs of development of the northern section. If development were to happen, BCYX would benefit as costs would be borne by PVJR and the industries that would develop.

Chair – need to wrap up discussion

Direction to Jim to put something together, printed, maps, factual to sum up today’s discussion – hopefully at either October or November meeting

Public Comment: None

Passenger train north of BG in the future? Will discuss at a future date. Heavy rail, no light rail

Adjourn

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