Not too far away from Spencer Creek Valley, there are other quiet valleys greened by forested hilly watersheds where people are trying to preserve a rural way of life and an unique relationship to the land. Subsistence gardening and timber cutting, living with the seasons, the ebb and flow of the river and rains, occasional trips to town, neighbors get to know each other. Many old timers are gone, their old homesteads broken up but the effort to be thoughtful stewards and watchdogs continues. As we experience an expanding population there is growing pressure on use of land: loss of habitat and trees, falling water tables for wells, suddenly crowded schools, fast traffic on gravel roads, this is country, not city nor suburban. Land use is survival for country people. Even as we all suffer and grumble about the bureaucracy of land use planning, we expect our public regulatory agencies (Lane County, Oregon, in this case) to uphold the goals, guidelines and state laws of land use planning - to do the right things. Even though we all dislike dealing with the County most people out here support the ideals of land use planning. So why is there a growing gap between the ideals and the practice of local land use planning?
There are many dedicated public employees working hard to uphold the ideals of the Lane County's land use planning system. But what do you do when the system has faulty wiring? Fence theater meets real estate development on Fire Road. -Editor

Citizens Action:

Battle for Fire Road

Lorane, Oregon

Several years ago a developer bought the 25 acre remains of the original farm at the end of Fire Road near Lorane, Oregon. I paid little attention to the fact until somebody who lived next to the place mentioned to me that a developer had applied to the Land Management Division (LMD) of Lane County to cut the original farm house off of the 25 acre spread on two acres in preparation of changing the zoning. The end of Fire Road is zoned as Rural Residential 10 acres so I had a difficult time believing this story. I have worked for a private surveyor and currently have a job that keeps me in touch with boundary lines and land use issues. I discounted what the neighbor told me. I discovered later that Lane County's LMD had sent notice of this proposed action to all people living within 300 feet of the developer's property. Since I lived 325 feet away, I had not been noticed. I didn't have long until the hearing for this "lot line adjustment" so I sent a letter of protest to the LMD and let it go at that. My former surveyor boss had told me that changing zoning was "like trying to scratch your ass with your elbow." I believed him.

Then the 12 acre place across from my west fence went up for sale and the developer quickly bought it. Both of his properties adjoined and the Siuslaw River runs through them. The majority of the developer's holdings are in the floodplain. I assumed that the county would not allow houses to be built in the floodplain but I was mistaken. With enough money, you can build a house on concrete stilts or import a ten foot deep rock footing to build on.

Soon after this I found out that the developer had cut off the new mobile home on 2 acres from the original 12 with another phony baloney "lot line adjustment" and was attempting to sell it. There was no notice from Lane County on this action and when I attempted to protest this questionable action, I was told by LMD this was a "preliminary" land use decision and could not be challenged until the first activity requiring a permit.

This is the incredible invisible road that allegedly divide's the developer's land into two units. - Norm

I promptly parked a junk car up against the fence where it could be appreciated by anyone looking at the mobile home. For good measure I spray painted GO BACK TO CAL in bright orange on the side of the old Dart facing west and left the hood up. I added a few major appliances and beer cans filled with water so they'd stay put. My wife drew the line at the crude HITLER LIVES sign I sprayed on a piece of sheet metal.

Still, I was able to influence the value of the developer's property. I would roll a friend's non-running chopper out of my shop and park it so it looked just ridden. I would "call for fire" when I saw prospective buyers around the place and a neighbor would open up into the hillside behind his house with his defense rifle. I would yell "SHUT UP, YOU FAT BITCH, OR I'LL BEAT YOU SOME MORE!" and stand on the back porch in my underwear with a jumbo sized beer can filled with water. It took a while but the developer did finally sell the place. I compared notes with the young couple who bought it and they felt they had gotten quite a deal.

The one time I talked to the developer over the back fence he made reference to my junk collection on the perimeter and told me that he "understood how I must feel." I didn't argue. When he further informed me that he was going to develop my 'hood, and there wasn't anything anybody could do about it, I terminated the conversation with "I shall resist." and walked away. I retained a lawyer shortly after this. When initially briefing her on the situation at the end of Fire Road, I was pleased to hear her say "they can't do that," after every other action I described. I was very fortunate to have blundered into this particular attorney.

I am the chief union steward at my place of employment and have some experience with battling bureaucracy. The vanity plate on my truck reads X-TEMP in honor of my first major victory where I had broken the "temp barrier" after 20 months and a week long visit from the Inspector General. While this was going on, my temporary appointment sadly ran out and I found myself working for a private surveyor for a year until suddenly invited to return to work the next Monday.

I am used to fighting alone and winning so am proud of myself for recognizing that I was in over my head on this one. The lawyer quickly found that nothing done to date at the end of Fire Road could be challenged until the re-zoning hearing. Lane County maintained that all these actions were "preliminary" land use decisions and couldn't be challenged until the first permit action was applied for. Re-zoning fills that bill.


Eventually, after a few false starts, the re-zoning hearing took place the end of this January. The developer took his family to Hawaii and we went to Florida. The hearings official found in my favor after six weeks or more of deliberation. He decided that Oregon land use law supersedes Lane County policies. State law doesn't recognize migrating tax lots and has a much more limited concept of lot line adjustments and ancient road easements dividing one tax lot into two by its mere presence. The hearings official found the two 2 acre tax lots with the original homes on them to be illegal. One of the lots is buried under at least three levels of illegality but I shan't bore you. Life would sure be a lot simpler if I had been allowed to challenge the process before the developer sold the lots.

So now we have two families living on illegal tax lots that never should have been sold in the first place. What their title companies were doing other than pocketing their fees is anybody's guess. The developer has invested a lot of time and money into this mess. It wasn't surprising when he appealed the hearings official's decision. When Kent Howe, the head of the Land Mngt Div, appealed the decision on behalf of Lane County, it was a surprise.

I was under the impression that Lane County was providing an impartial forum for the resolution of this dispute. I didn't realize that LC had the privilege of being both judge AND litigant. Live and learn. I began to worry at this point. I was soundly trouncing the developer despite his money and influence broker lawyer. But now the developer is tag teamed with LC to whom money is no object at all, not to mention the fact that the hearings official is a LC employee.

I needed media to offset the advantages of the opposing forces. I e-mailed Lance Robertson, a reporter for the Eugene Register-Guard, the basics of the story. He ignored me at first but I piqued his interest with the update that Kent Howe had appealed LC's own decision. This doesn't happen every day. Eventually, Lance came out and brought a photographer who took photos of the flood plain and me and Mona the dog who wandered around the area with us. The story made the headlines on May Day. I felt I had broken out of the box of silence. I backed it up with a letter to the editor that gave LC a few right crosses and went ahead and threw in a few left jabs at Californians for good measure. I got a spate of "fan" mail in the letters to the editor column attacking me as a Caliphobe. Nobody cared to respond to LC being in bed with a developer. I guess this was no news.

We are awaiting the hearings official's "reconsidered" decision. The developer is going to be out a lot of money and will sue Lane County as LC's Land Management Division blessed what he did without verifying its legality. Lane County wants very badly for me to dry up and blow away but that just isn't likely to happen.

Update August 2000:
The hearing officer who reconsidered the actions of Lane County has overturned his own earlier decision and found in favor of the developer 's and Lane County's actions, contrary to state land use planning regulations. Is there an inherent conflict of interest when a County hearings official is employed by one of the major parties? Who doesn't like to eat or pay for housing? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter in the sage, Battle for Fire Road. - Editor

Update September 2000:
On the Fire Road citizen's appeal route, the Lane County Board of Commissioners put the Fire Road case on the agenda and agreed to send it directly to the Sate of Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) rather than review it themselves. This is very good news for the grassroots rural preservation movement. The case will be measured as it should be by the prevailing state laws, not by local politics and influence. - Editor