Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
It was a day of feedback for Klickitat Commissioners yesterday. During the regular public comment agenda item, former Klickitat County Commissioner Jim Sizemore made this comment:
“I never would have ever thought that Los Angeles would have caught fire and burned. We want to tweak our building codes because this whole mountain ridge is for sale, a parcel at a time, from the Klickitat River up to Bickleton.”
Sizemore suggested that the county use guidelines developed by the Department of Natural Resources as a starting point for higher defensible space standards, given the increasing influx of people into the county.
That thought was echoed by Adrian Bradford:
“Just to further add to Mr. Sizemore’s comments about waiting for wildfires to happen, I can tell you we’re not waiting. This year we lost a major — one of our grape vineyards out in Alderdale, and three years ago it was Underwood. We lost four vineyards. We don’t have to wait for these wildfires. Believe me, they’re already here.”
Commissioners said they plan to take the matter up for serious consideration at a workshop in the near future.
And Commissioners heard feedback during public hearings on two new proposed ordinances. One, which drew little comment, added speed limits to certain county roads. It passed with few comments. The second, which would have allowed all-terrain vehicles to travel on portions certain highways where the speed limit was 35 miles per hour or below. Though supported by the county sheriff, most of the dozen people who testified were local residents who were opposed to allowing ATVs on the roads. Here’s a composite of some of their reasons:
“My concern is people from Portland, Vancouver and wherever come up here and recreate on the roads here and whatnot, tear ’em all up, go out in the timber and whatnot and create a fire hazard/the noise and the effect on the environment/opening up gates, leaving gates open. They don’t care/ATVs with log trucks coming around the corner, not expecting it, you run a huge risk/If you make this legal, people are going to get hurt.”
Commissioners did close the verbal testimony but allowed additional written comments to be submitted until 5 p.m. Friday. The motion will be voted on at a later meeting.