All five coastal counties — Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, Coos and Curry — make administrative land use decisions, as do counties statewide. There is provision in the land use laws for administrative decision-making to cover small-scale land use requests for which there is no need for a major public hearing. In these smaller decisions, there is always notice to neighbors and interested parties, and the opportunity for public comment.

But increasingly, counties (and cities) are restricting administrative decisions to the point that there is no public knowledge at all of applications and permits. These are called Type I decisions. Theoretically, these applications are for small-scale items which meet all requirements of the land use laws; but in practice the counties using this system often cut corners. They can do this because only they are undertaking the review; there are no checks and balances.

In Type I applications there is no public notice, no opportunity for public comment, and no right of appeal. These projects have become completely, entirely, outside the public land use system. Worse yet, there is no place even to find the decisions and related documents: they are either not posted on any website, or (in the case of Clatsop County) if they are posted on the state’s permitting portal, they are nearly impossible to locate.

Of the five coastal counties, Clatsop County is by any definition the worst: they make many Type I decisions, including the permitting of very large country mansions with substantial landscaping, right outside the urban growth boundary of Cannon Beach (see photo accompanying this article). The decisions and related documents are posted on the state’s permitting port, where nobody will be able to locate them without exhaustive searches. Tillamook County operates the exact same way, using Type I extensively, but in their case, not even posting the materials on the state website. The searching member of the public can only find a list of approved projects.

The other three coastal counties — Lincoln, Coos and Curry — do not use the Type I category; they allow minimal notification and public comment. But the decisions and documents are not posted on the Lincoln County website. They are posted in Coos County, in a scattered fashion on the web page for land use planning, if you know where to look. Curry County has lately resorted to sending these administrative decisions to interested parties by regular mail, not using either their own website or the state’s.

This jumble of decision-making and the poor performance in making these decisions public — though they often crucially affect community livability — is what we would expect when there is so little appreciation given to public participation. Goal One of the land use laws lays out the requirements for public involvement, but to counties it simply means more money and staff time spent that could be more “efficiently” used by simply making the decision and moving on.

ORCA thinks this is very wrong, contrary to democratic principles and to our cherished land use laws. Therefore, we have set up a web page to track administrative and Type I decisions in the five coastal counties, so that people can find out where they are and what they are. We will be adding new material regularly, so please check back. To see the new page, click here. Please send us feedback about the new web page, and ease (or difficulty) of navigating through it.

Both Michael Keiser for his New River golf course adjacent to Bandon State Park south of Bandon, and Elk River Property Development fot their unbuilt golf course at Knapp Ranch, have gone to the Legislature in an effort to escape from the requirements of the land use laws.

SB 877 would supersite the New River golf course, and exonerate Keiser’s development group from meeting various land use requirements. This bill, referred to the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, never had a hearing and is now dead. Unless it is resurrected as a “gut and stuff” bill as the session nears its end (which is always possible), the New River golf course does not seem likely to be supersited.

SB 1047, in the -2 amendments, would clear the path for the unbuilt Knapp Ranch golf course. It would create a commercial exception for domestic wells so ERPD would not have to meet water-related requirements for commercial use. It also directs Curry County to expedite all applications for the golf course, whether for land use planning, building permits, business licensing, and even public health or restaurant licensing. The amendments would allow Curry County to discount or waive any fees — or pay any state, local or other fee. As a final outrage, the amendment authorizes $55,000 of taxpayer monies to go to Curry County for expediting applications and/or paying the permit fees!

This bill, and the -2 amendment, was also referred to Senate Energy and Environment, where it had a hearing. ORCA, among others including Waterwatch, wrote to the Senators or testified against this amendment, which is a grossly obvious special interest bill. It is scheduled for a possible work session on April 7 at 3 pm.

ORCA took Clatsop County to the Land Use Board of Appeals over its drastic amendments to the county land use ordinances. These wide-ranging amendments will greatly affect the quality of life in the county’s unincorporated communities, such as Arch Cape, Falcon Cove, Miles Crossing, and all the others. Under the new ordinances, lot sizes for houses will shrink to 5,000 square feet, and many more decisions will be made as Type I, with no notice, no public comment, and no appeal. Worst of all, the county had absolutely no factual data to support its statements that these changes would increase housing availability in the county.

Please support us in fighting these amendments in court. Coastal livability is at stake. Click here to donate to ORCA to support this appeal.