[Klickitat] 🍼 Childcare as "Economic Infrastructure" - Klickitat BoCC 4/21 & 4/28

Klickitat County is shifting how it views childcare, moving from a private family issue to treating it as critical economic infrastructure. We look at a recent site visit to Boardman, Oregon, to see how public-private partnerships might cure our local "childcare desert." We also break down the county's pushback against state energy codes, and why housing experts are warning that our regional fear of short-term rentals might actually be making the housing crisis worse.

In This Episode:

• A $21 million state public health funding cut forces lean operations locally.
• The new "Frontier Defense" strategy against state energy mandates.
• How the Planning Commission is updating ADU rules, and the "Option-Value" catch-22 of missing middle housing.
• Bids awarded for Courthouse exterior stucco and painting.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Read Nathan Wilson's reporting on the county's childcare desert in the Columbia Gorge News.
• View the official meeting agendas and packets at the Klickitat County website.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, and welcome back to the Clickitatler audio briefing. Today we're looking at the Clickitac County Board of Commissioners meetings from April 21st and April 28th, and we have a packed agenda. Let's start with a massive shift in how the county is approaching economic development, and it has to do with kids. As reporter Nathan Wilson recently highlighted over in the Columbia Gorge News, Click-itac County is officially treating our local childcare desert as a critical infrastructure failure. To find a fix, local leaders like Lynn Mason from Rural Solutions and early learning expert Katrina Brecht recently toured the Neil Early Learning Center down in Boardman, Oregon. They met with facility director Brenda Profit to see how Boardman successfully bypassed federal grant bottlenecks to build such a wonderful center. The secret? They use local enterprise zones and lean on major regional employers, like Lam Weston, to help underwrite the facility costs so childcare staff can actually earn a living wage. Now, the goal is to bring that corporate-sponsored public utility model right here to click a tap. We're looking forward to seeing this discussion move forward in future county childcare workshops. Turning now to the state level, tension is building over new energy codes. County lobbyist Zach Kennedy briefed the board on the highly contentious state energy updates scheduled for next year. These codes require higher efficiency in new construction, which local building officials warn will drastically raise the cost to build a home. To fight back, eastern Washington counties are looking at a unique legal playbook. Because Washington law defines a quote-unquote frontier county as having fewer than 50 people per square mile, lobbyists are trying to carve out exemptions or delays for deeply rural areas, framing it entirely as defense of affordable workforce housing. Speaking of housing, let's talk about ADUs or accessory dwelling units. The Planning Commission is pushing forward new rules for mother-in-law suites. They are setting a strict 200-foot proximity rule to the main house and explicitly banning them from being used as short-term rentals. If you tuned into our earlier episode on the Gorge Commission's Economic Vitality Committee, you'll know that fear of ADUs turning into Airbnbs is a huge regional anxiety right now. But there is a catch. Housing experts and economists are warning that hyperfocusing on the fear of short-term rentals can actually backfire. Building an ADU is incredibly expensive. For a regular homeowner to take out a construction loan, they need the financial safety net of knowing they could pivot to a short-term rental if they face a sudden hardship or gap in long-term tenancy. Studies show when cities strip away that fallback option just to cure what-if anxieties, financial risk often becomes too high and the housing simply never gets built. It's a frustrating catch-22 as our local agencies try to share good practices and protect neighborhood character without accidentally freezing the exact missing middle housing that we desperately need. A quick look at the budget before we go. The state is cutting$21 million from foundational public health services across Washington. As pandemic era funds dry up, County has to figure out how to keep services running on a much leaner budget. Looking ahead, mark your calendars for May 12th when the board holds a public hearing on the supplemental budget, and May 13th for a regional emergency management exercise. For the full breakdown, including infrastructure bids approved this week, and links to some of those studies that we talked about around ADUs, be sure to read the written dispatch. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of the Schemania Dispatch and the Click a Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash open gorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.