ONE TOWN SQUARE: at the intersection of peak oil, climate change, and land use

At “work group” meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, land use advocates and developers reached accord on proposed changes to Lane Code chapters 13 and 14.

Adoption of the Chapter 13 amendments would mean that Lane County would at last review and approve property line adjustments. The absence of a county review process has led to numerous illegal property line adjustments over past years, creating a legal limbo for property owners; and has allowed developers to reconfigure rural properties into what are in effect rural subdivisions without public notice, public scrutiny, or opportunity for public participation.

The Chapter 14 amendments would streamline Lane County’s land use decision-making process and would provide a means to bypass the exorbitantly expensive process for appealing a hearings official decision to the Board of Commissioners. The expense of the process has effectively insulated hearings official decisions from review.

The historic agreement was prompted by the new lineup on the Board of Commissioners. LandWatch Lane County and Goal One Coalition have for several years been pushing for Lane County to regulate property line adjustments and to lower appeal fees so that people are not priced out of the process. Those efforts have included litigation. Also, LandWatch and Goal One drafted code amendments to implement new state law while fixing both the property line adjustments and decision-making process problems.

The development community, together with Lane County’s Land Management Division, stonewalled the proposed reforms for years. But the election of Rob Handy last November resulted in a shakeup in the makeup of the Board of Commissioners, changing the political dynamics. The new progressive majority chose Pete Sorenson to chair the Board. The agenda committee, which has the power to set the county’s priorities, consists of Sorenson and Bill Fleenor. Sorenson and Fleenor, now with the unanimous assent of the rest of the Board, bypassed Land Management and scheduled a joint meeting of the Lane County Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners to consider the LandWatch/Goal One proposals.

The joint hearing made it clear to everyone that the Board of Commissioners was now determined to adopt the LandWatch/Goal One proposals. In an act of remarkable generosity and accommodation, the Board directed all interested parties to meet to see if a consensus proposal could be crafted. The Board also set dates certain for the Planning Commission to consider the resulting proposal and for the Board to adopt final code amendments.

It was now obvious to the development community that they could obstruct no longer – the Board was determined to act. The developer “group,” under the leadership of ex-commissioner Steve Cornacchia, came to the table with slightly modified proposals that would achieve all of the ends sought by LandWatch and Goal One: property line adjustments would be reviewed by the county for compliance with applicable law in a process open to public participation, and Lane County’s land use decision-making process would be simplified and would allow for appeal to LUBA of a hearings official decision without the necessity of paying over $3,700 to first appeal to the Board of Commissioners.

Written drafts of revisions embodying the agreements in principle are now being prepared. The revised Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 amendments will be posted on the Goal One Institute website as soon as they become available.