Lane County to reform to land use hearing, property line adjustment procedures
April 30th, 2009 by Jim JustLane County initiates reforms to land use hearing, property line adjustment procedures
April 30th, 2009
Culminating many years of effort, the Lane County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday ordered the Land Management Division to initiate post-amendment plan amendments (PAPAs) to fix problems with the local appeals process and with property line adjustments in Lane County.
Over the last weeks and months LandWatch and Goal One Coalition have been meeting with representatives of the developer community including the Home Builders Association of Lane County to reach consensus agreement on proposed code language. With everybody on board, the new Board of Commissioners under the leadership of Pete Sorenson and Bill Fleenor unanimously agreed that the time to act on the proposals had finally come.
The amendments to Lane Code Chapter 14 would streamline the local appeals process by providing that the initial public hearing before the Hearings Official would be the final county decision unless the Board of Commissioners on its own initiative chose to review the decision. The simplified and expedited process saves time and money for everybody while providing incentives for better decision-making and retaining the power of the Board to set county policy and retain deference on review. The text of the proposed amendments is available h
The amendments to Lane Code Chapter 13 would for the first time require county review and approval of property line adjustments. The new process would eliminate the cloud of legal uncertainty that surrounds Lane County’s current process of “verifying” property line adjustments post facto through its “legal lot” verification process. The new process would better protect property owners’ interests while enhancing the ability of citizens to be involved in the process. The draft proposal also brings the county code into compliance with legislation passed in the 2007 and 2008 sessions. The text of the proposed amendments is available here.
A more thorough explanation of the issues is found at the Goal One Institute website here.