FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About 85% of the County is unzoned.
Zoning maps are available for the zoned portions of the County at
the counter of the Planning Division of the Department of Building and
Planning, 207 Fourth Avenue North or click here.
The zoned areas are generally near Kelso and Longview, west of
Woodland, and the community of Ryderwood.
Zoning information can also be given over the phone if you can
satisfactorily identify the location of your property, such as by
address and parcel number. More
on Zoning is available through our information
sheets link above.
Whether or not a property can be subdivided depends
first of all on the area of the property compared to the minimum lot
size requirement for where it is located.
The entire County has minimum lot requirements for dividing
property. This is
determined by the County’s Zoning Map or Comprehensive Plan Land Use
Classifications map. Additional
development restrictions could be placed on specific properties because
of environmental constraints, such as unstable slopes or location in
floodplains. More on Subdivisions
is available through our information sheets link above.
The fee for short platting is set annually by the
Board of County Commissioners. Check
with the Planning Division for the current fees or
click here.
Application forms and information packet describing the process
in detail are available at the Planning Division office, can be mailed
to you, or found under Planning Forms. Once an application
for a short plat (defined as no more than 4 lots where at least one of
the lots is less than 5 acres) is received by the Department and
determined complete, it takes about 30 days for preliminary approval.
The applicant then has up to one year to meet all conditions of
approval as set forth in the preliminary approval letter. These conditions include water availability and sewage
disposal for each lot and may include a survey, private road
improvements, easement requirements, and/or other conditions.
The one year timeline can be extended “for good cause shown”
for another 6 months. Once
all conditions are met, the final plat must be recorded in the County
auditor’s office before lots can be sold.
More on short platting can be found through Subdivisions
on our information sheets link above.
The
Planning Division has maps that can indicate the possibility of your
property being in a critical area.
Staff can locate your property on these maps with an address and
parcel number. The public can also
access the critical areas maps by using
EPIC. The Division
can also make a critical areas determination for the property that
includes a site visit to the property.
More on Critical
Areas is available through our information sheets link above.
The Planning Division has the official flood plain
maps as issued by FEMA.
These maps are available for review at the planning Division
counter or you can view them on the FEMA webpage and create your own
FIRMETTE. A written
floodplain determination can be made upon application.
More on Floodplain management is
available through our information sheets link above. |
