In 2019, Clark County lifted development restrictions on 2,200 acres along NE 179th Street, promising infrastructure would follow within six years. That deadline passed in November 2025. The roads are years behind schedule, tens of millions over original estimates, and development keeps getting approved.
Washington’s Growth Management Act requires a simple deal: if you approve new development, the roads to serve it must be funded and in place within six years. That’s the law. It’s called “concurrency.”
Clark County has a concurrency system. On paper, it checks whether roads can handle new development before that development is approved. In practice, the system has structural features that make it nearly impossible for any project to fail—even when the roads are clearly inadequate.
Here are the four mechanisms that make it work.
Traffic studies measure congestion against the road as it’s planned to exist someday—not as it exists today. NE 179th Street is physically a two-lane rural road with a capacity around 600 vehicles per hour. But the Arterial Atlas designates it as a future multi-lane arterial with a capacity of 1,800. Using the bigger number as the denominator makes a failing road look like it has plenty of room.
A small subdivision only has to analyze roads within one mile. The I-5 interchange—the corridor’s biggest bottleneck—may fall outside that radius entirely. The state’s Growth Management Act contains no geographic limitation on concurrency. The distance caps are a County creation that systematically excludes the most constrained points.
Developments get credit for road improvements listed in the six-year plan—even if those improvements haven’t been built, funded, or designed. The same unbuilt projects cited to lift urban holding in 2019 are still being used to justify approvals in 2026. The NE 29th to NE 50th segment isn’t even on the “Reasonably Funded” list. Worse, the I-5/179th interchange is a WSDOT project the County has no authority to build or guarantee—yet the County takes credit for it to approve local development.
Each development is evaluated individually. Five traffic studies were prepared for corridor projects during the same time period—and none of them count the traffic from the other four. Hundreds of trips loading the same roads simply don’t appear in each other’s analysis. The same engineer prepared multiple studies using the same horizon year, and none included the others as “in-process” developments. This isn’t a one-time oversight; it’s how the system is structured.
“Based on the information contained in the Clark County Staff Report and timing of WSDOT
funding for the interchange, WSDOT supports the staff report recommendation of denial
for this proposal.”
— WSDOT letter to Community Planning Director Oliver Orjiako, November 7, 2018
— regarding the first urban holding lift application. WSDOT stated the interchange
would not be operationally functional until 2028 and that it lacked capacity for additional
development. This recommendation was never disclosed to the Planning Commission or County Council
at any of the three 2019 hearings where urban holding was lifted.
“When I first saw these corridor projects back when it was talked about as a package
and my predecessors were discussing completing these in six years, I don’t know of anyone
who had done projects like these that thought that was possible.”
— Ken Lader, Clark County Public Works Director, July 12, 2023 Council meeting
The GMA requires that transportation improvements be “in place at the time of development” or that a financial commitment be in place to complete them within six years. That means from day one, the financing must be reasonably committed—not that the County has six years to figure out how to pay for it. Across three proceedings in 2019, this standard was progressively weakened:
February 2019 (Planning Commission): The applicant’s representative reframed
the standard as whether “there will be funding in place”—not improvements, just funding.
October 2019 (Planning Commission): Staff stated that “State law allows
development to happen when transportation improvements are reasonably funded in that six years.”
When asked if developments could be finished before infrastructure is in place, staff responded: “Correct.”
Neither the Community Planning Director nor the Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney—both present at all three hearings—corrected these characterizations.
Commissioner Bender: “Is there a CPM, a Critical Path of Management,
for completion of all these projects?”
Ahmad Qayoumi, Public Works Director: “Our goal is to…start the
design of all those projects at the same time and get the right-of-way and permit and
environmental process cleared so by the time 2024, 2023 comes, then we’re going to
go construction.”
Randy Printz, the developers’ representative who had been meeting with County staff,
WSDOT, and at least two County Councilors on a monthly basis since 2016, then confirmed:
“I just wanted to make sure that we weren’t misleading you, that there isn’t
a true construction management plan sitting there that says, okay, we’re going to
start grading on this date and all those sorts of things.”
— Planning Commission hearing, February 21, 2019. No construction plan existed.
Urban holding was lifted that night on a 4-0 vote.
At the I-5 NB Ramps roundabout on 179th Street, the Towhee Creek study found V/C 0.822 and LOS A (passing). The NE 174th Street study—prepared by the same consulting firm, using the same horizon year—found V/C 1.138 and LOS F (failing) at the same intersection. The difference: roughly 87 vehicles per hour in background traffic assumptions. That’s the margin between “approved” and “denied.” And remember: five studies were prepared during the same time period without counting each other’s traffic. The missing cumulative trips far exceed 87 vehicles. The system has no mechanism to reconcile these contradictory results.
Twenty-four developer-commissioned traffic studies have been prepared for projects in and around the 179th corridor since 2018. The pattern is consistent and worsening: the same road segments fail in study after study, and the failures get worse each year as more developments are added to the background.
NE 179th Street eastbound between I-5 and NE 15th Avenue fails in every single study that analyzes it — ten studies spanning five years, from V/C 1.01 in 2020 to V/C 1.17 in 2025. Every study uses the inflated Arterial Atlas capacity of 1,800 vehicles per hour for what is physically a two-lane road. Every study credits unbuilt road improvements. And it still fails.
| Facility | Metric | Condition | Status | Source (# of studies confirming) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE 179th Street Corridor — Worsening Since 2020 | ||||
| NE 179th St EB (I-5 to 15th Ave) | V/C 1.01 → 1.17 | Background, 2020–2025 | FAILS IN ALL 10 STUDIES | M&H, Peterson, 179th Apts W&E, Summit, Four Creeks South, Ridgefield MS, Anderson Dental, Four Creeks North, Three Creeks East |
| NE 10th Ave (189th–179th) | V/C 1.33 | 2028 Background | FAIL | Three Creeks East, Four Creeks North, Anderson Dental |
| NE 179th St EB (Delfel–I-5) | V/C 1.04–1.06 | 2028 Background | FAIL | Three Creeks East, Four Creeks North |
| NE 50th Ave (179th–174th) | V/C 1.13 | 2028 Background | FAIL | Three Creeks East |
| NE 15th Ave (179th–174th) | V/C 0.98–0.99 | 2028 Background | AT LIMIT | Three Creeks East, Four Creeks North, Anderson Dental |
| NE 15th Ave (199th–179th) | V/C 0.91–1.10 | 2025–2029 Background | FAIL | Four Creeks South, Ridgefield MS |
| Intersections — Failing at LOS F | ||||
| NE 179th / NE 50th Ave | LOS F / V/C >1.00 | 2028 Background PM | FAIL | Kozy Manor, Three Creeks East |
| NE 179th / Delfel Rd | LOS F | Existing (2025) PM | FAIL | Three Creeks East |
| NE 179th / NE 15th Ave (roundabout) | V/C >1.00 | 2028 Background PM | FAIL | Anderson Dental, Three Creeks East, Four Creeks North |
| NE 159th / NE 72nd Ave | LOS F (existing) | Existing & all future | FAIL | M&H, DSHS, Four Creeks South, Mt Vista — 4 studies |
| NE 184th / NE 29th Ave | LOS F | 2029 Total AM | FAIL | Ridgefield MS |
| NE 72nd Avenue — Failing Since 2020 | ||||
| NE 72nd Ave (179th–159th–139th) | V/C 0.94–1.23 | Existing through 2025 Background | FAIL | M&H (2020), Four Creeks South (2022) |
| Salmon Creek Area — Where Corridor Residents Shop, Get Medical Care & Access Services | ||||
| NE Salmon Creek Ave EB (134th–50th) | V/C 1.08 | 2020 Pre-Development AM | FAIL | Skyview Station (2018) |
| NE 139th St WB (I-205–20th Ave) | V/C 0.91–0.94 | 2020–2028 Background PM | FAIL | Skyview Station (2018), Salmon Creek Memory Care (2021) |
| NE 139th St WB (20th–23rd Ave) | V/C 1.04–1.05 | 2023 Background PM | FAIL | M&H (2020) |
| NE 10th Ave (149th–139th) | V/C 1.08 | 2028 Background | FAIL | Towhee Creek |
V/C = volume-to-capacity ratio. The County’s concurrency threshold is 0.90. Anything above 0.90 is failing. LOS F = Level of Service F, the worst grade. Sources: 24 developer-commissioned traffic impact studies spanning 2018–2025, prepared by Kittelson & Associates, Lancaster Mobley, Mackenzie, TENW, Charbonneau Engineering, and H. Lee & Associates. Note: at roundabout intersections, overall LOS is a volume-weighted average—individual approaches can be at LOS F while the intersection reports LOS A.
The failures don’t stay on 179th. The NE 134th–139th Street corridor between NE 10th and NE 29th Avenues is where corridor residents go for groceries, gas, pharmacies, medical appointments, dentists, and fast food. The roads and intersections serving this commercial district are already failing or at the threshold—and no traffic study for a 179th corridor development is required to analyze or mitigate impacts to these daily destinations.
A note on jurisdiction: The segment of NE 179th Street from approximately NE Delfel Road to NE 15th Avenue—including the I-5 interchange—is state-owned (WSDOT). The County applies its own concurrency standards to this segment in traffic studies, but then disclaims the failing results as outside County jurisdiction. The County cannot have it both ways: either the interchange is within its concurrency system or it isn’t.
Understanding the Numbers: V/C, LOS & Roundabouts Explained →
When urban holding was lifted in 2019, the County presented a project timeline of 2021–2027 for major corridor improvements. The current reality:
| Project | Current Schedule | Budget | Years Past Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| NE 179th at NE 29th Ave Roundabout | 2025–2027 | $27.6M | 2 years |
| NE 179th (NE 15th–NE 26th Ave) | 2028–2030 | $24.3M | 3–5 years |
| NE 15th Ave (179th–10th Ave) | 2028–2030 | $20M | 3–5 years |
| NE Delfel Rd (179th–184th) | 2029–2031 | $21.3M | 4–6 years |
| I-5/179th Interchange (WSDOT) | 2029–2031 | $86M | 4–6 years |
| NE 179th (NE 29th–NE 50th Ave) | 2031–2033 | $23.9M | 6–8 years · NOT FUNDED |
| NE 50th Ave Roundabout | 2035+ | ~$24M (est.) | 10+ years · NOT FUNDED |
| TOTAL | ~$227M+ | 2–10+ years late |
The NE 179th (NE 29th–NE 50th Ave) segment is the improvement most frequently cited to justify development approvals at the corridor’s eastern end. It is not on the County’s own “Reasonably Funded Project List.”
If you drive down 179th Street during the evening commute, you already know it’s getting worse. But you might wonder: if the numbers are this bad, why isn’t it worse? There’s a reason—and it’s actually the heart of the problem.
When the County approves a development, it reserves the trips that development will generate. Those trips are accounted for in the concurrency system as committed—but they’re not on the road yet. The houses haven’t been built. The families haven’t moved in. The cars aren’t making their evening commute home.
Over 2,900 housing units have been approved in this corridor since 2018, generating over 25,000 daily vehicle trips. Another 725 units are in the pre-application pipeline. Commercial and industrial developments add another 8,600+ daily trips. WSU Vancouver and other institutions hold reserved trips based on their submitted plans. Combined, approved developments alone account for over 33,000 daily trips on roads that were already at or near capacity.
When those developments build out, the traffic will arrive on roads that still won’t be finished. From the first development approvals in 2018 to when the NE 50th/179th roundabout is projected to be complete is nearly 20 years for 2.5 miles of road—and that doesn’t even include the west side projects.
That’s the whole reason concurrency exists—to make sure more development isn’t approved than the roads can handle. The system is supposed to prevent the problem before it becomes visible, not after. By the time you can see the gridlock from your car window, it’s too late. The approvals have been granted. The trips are committed. And the roads to serve them are still years away.
On April 27, 2026, the Clark County Council will vote on a preferred alternative for the 2025 Comprehensive Plan update. This is the decision that sets density and infrastructure commitments for the next 20 years.
The 179th corridor is already failing under its current level of approved development—with infrastructure years behind schedule and key projects unfunded. The question before the Council is whether to increase density in this corridor before the promises made in 2019 have been kept.
Growth from Ridgefield and the broader region will add significant traffic to the I-5 corridor and create regional congestion that flows through the 179th interchange area. The Comprehensive Plan needs to account for this reality—not just local trips, but the regional traffic burden that this corridor will bear.
We’re asking Clark County to do what it promised and what the law requires:
Infrastructure should be built before—or at least alongside—the houses. Not a decade later.
Measure real road capacity, not theoretical future capacity for roads that don’t exist yet. Use the actual road cross-section, not the Arterial Atlas buildout designation.
No new development approvals in the corridor until the infrastructure commitments made in 2019 are substantially complete.
Traffic studies should evaluate the whole corridor—not just the half-mile around each project. Cumulative impacts are the entire point of concurrency.
The County Council is voting on the preferred alternative for the Comprehensive Plan update. This is the decision that sets density and infrastructure commitments for the next 20 years. Your voice matters—here’s how to use it.
Written comments go on the permanent record. Submit your comments through the County’s
official portal before April 27. Reference the DEIS findings and the 179th corridor
concurrency failures.
Submit Public Comment →
Show up at the April 27 Council meeting and sign up to speak during public comment.
You typically get 3 minutes. Focus on one or two specific points—the data is
more powerful than general frustration.
Council Meeting Info & Agenda →
A direct email or phone call to your district’s Council member carries weight, especially
before a vote. Tell them you live in the corridor and you’re watching this decision.
Write Your Councilor →
What to say: The County’s own travel demand model shows the 179th corridor failing under both Comp Plan alternatives. Infrastructure promised in 2019 is years behind schedule. The concurrency system uses planned road capacity instead of actual capacity. Don’t increase density until the roads catch up.
179Gridlock.com is maintained by residents of the NE 179th Street corridor in unincorporated Clark County, Washington. We live here. We drive these roads every day. And we’ve spent the last several years reading the traffic studies, attending the hearings, and analyzing the County’s concurrency system.
This site exists because the public record tells a story that isn’t being told anywhere else: Clark County’s system for ensuring roads keep pace with development is structurally designed to approve every application, regardless of actual road conditions.
Every claim on this site is sourced to a specific document, traffic study, County code section, or public meeting record. We distinguish between what the data shows and what we believe it means. We correct errors when we find them. If you believe something here is inaccurate, let us know.
We are not anti-development. We are pro-infrastructure. Build the roads, then build the houses.