• On December 12, 2022, City Council enacted a temporary moratorium on the acceptance of new or expanded warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet in order to allow time to study long term land use implications and develop any necessary code changes to address identified issues;
• In the past year, staff has seen a dramatic increase in the number of development applications and inquiries for very large warehouse facilities, which, if the trend continues, has the potential to consume vast quantities of Vancouver's limited industrial land;
• Such facilities provide very few jobs per acre and are typically low skill and low wage positions, and are not a high priority use in the Clark County Economic Development Plan, which the City has adopted;
• Land consumption and resulting low density employment increases the risk of the City being unable to achieve its jobs/housing goals in the comprehensive plan. 
• Warehouse and Freight Movement use is allowed in the Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial District in the City of Vancouver with no limitation on size;
• At a workshop on January 23, 2023, City Council directed staff to create an exception to the moratorium for large warehouses proposed by the Port of Vancouver on their property, provided that such warehouses do not involve the home delivery of retail goods;
• Per state law, because the moratorium was enacted under an emergency ordinance, a public hearing must be held within sixty (60) days of the adoption of the moratorium ordinance.

Goal 1: Ensure our built environment is one of the safest, most environmentally responsible and maintained in the Pacific Northwest

Goal 9: Build the strongest, most resilient economy in the Pacific Northwest

Objective 9.1: Create infrastructure and policies that support job creation

• There have been seven pre-development or development applications inquiries for large warehouse and distribution facilities between 100,000 square feet up to 680,000 square feet, which are much larger than typical warehouses, for a total of 3.34 million square feet of proposed new warehouse structures;
• The proposed warehouses would consume approximately 15% of total buildable industrial land within city limits;
• These extremely large facilities appear to be a growing trend in response to an increased demand for online shopping and parcel delivery, and the size of these new types of facilities and fast pace of this change is a growing concern in other communities throughout the U.S.;
• Such facilities consume vast amounts of limited industrial land yet provide very few jobs per acre and are typically low skill and low wage positions, and are not a high priority use in the Clark County Economic Development Plan, which the City has adopted;
• A primary concern is the land-intensive nature of these large warehouses and low job creation, but other issues such as air pollution, implications on the City's climate action goals, increase in truck traffic to vulnerable neighborhoods, and appropriately locating such warehouses near major arterial routes and highways need to be analyzed;
• At the January 23, 2023 workshop, City Council directed staff to exempt the Port of Vancouver from the moratorium on property owned by the Port and provided that any warehouse is for shipment of bulk goods, not home delivery of retail goods. The Port, as a public agency responsible for receiving and shipping goods via rail and ship and which controls limited industrial land, promotes shipment of bulk goods rather home delivery distribution centers, which is the major type of warehouses greater than 100,000 square feet;
• Such an exemption for the Port of Vancouver must be made through adoption of an ordinance as opposed to a resolution, therefore staff will be returning to Council with an ordinance proposing this exemption for consideration at a separate public hearing on March 6, 2023;
• Staff presented a detailed work plan to City Council that outlines the proposed analysis of impacts, public outreach, code development and approval process, to be completed by December 2023. One six-month extension of the moratorium will be required in order for the necessary work to be completed. Staff will provide updates on its progress to the City Council throughout the year, which may include refinements to the parameters of the moratorium more frequently than at 6 month intervals.

• The proposed resolution will meet the minimum requirements of RCW 35A.63.220 which requires that a resolution in support of the moratorium be adopted either prior to or immediately following a public hearing on the moratorium. However, in order for an exception to the moratorium for the Port of Vancouver to be in force, City Council will need to approve this exception by adoption of an ordinance. Accordingly, City staff will return to Council at the next available date with an ordinance that includes an exception to the moratorium for the Port of Vancouver.

Affirming the emergency moratorium ordinance for the duration of the six month period would 'pause' the acceptance of new applications for warehouses to allow time to study the characteristics of different types of warehouse and distribution uses that will lead to possible development code changes.  This pause would suspend the further consumption of employment lands with these uses that may interfere with achieving regional economic development objectives and the city's comprehensive plan policy goals.

The moratorium will provide an opportunity to engage with stakeholders and the community to obtain input on concerns and potential code amendments to address such concerns.