Fire Road Update
December, 2001
Lorane, Oregon
By Norm Maxwell
The 'hood at the end of Fire Road. Taken from the top of a recent clear cut.
That's our place with the metal shop & the red pickup truck.
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LORANE, OREGON- Oregon's Court of Appeals has reversed Lane County's Land Management
Division/developer complex's attempt to reduce the zoning at the end of Fire Road
near Lorane. Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals had rubber stamped Lane County's
Hearing Official's Gary Darnielle's decision in favor of the complex. This might
have been because the developer trying to pack houses in the flood plain of the Siuslaw
River at the end of Fire Road had hired a former LUBA "referee" to represent
his interests in that venue.
The complex's influence ran out when Maxwell v Lane County & developer reached
the Court of Appeals. The three judges who heard the case decided that it was a matter
of common sense as well as Lane County land use policy that the lots created by the
complex in order to defeat the original Rural Residential 10 acre zoning needed to
be legally created. They did not buy the threadbare mantra that it was somehow my
job to catch and stop the complex from perpetrating illegal land use manuvers.
The complex had cleverly labeled everything they did in this regard as "preliminary"
so that I couldn't challenge it. Of course, the next step after "preliminary"
was "too late" in order to keep little people from cluttering up the complex's
agenda.
So now, Gary Darnielle gets Maxwell v Lane County & developer back in his lap
to fix. The C of A has provided guidelines and interpretation of laws and decisions
that Darnielle will use to repair the damage.
I honestly don't see how this can be done. The complex managed to cut a home off
of a legal lot on two acres and sell it while holding me at bay with the "preliminary"
routine. A third party paid good money in good faith for the existing home. Another
existing home sits on an illegal lot that was allegedly moved onto another lot. The
Land Management Division wields a rubber stamp in one hand while keeping the other
one outstretched whenever a developer wants to do something.
We have two innocent parties holding illegal lots. One wants to sell and move away.
The other wants to stay but wants a legal lot out of this. The developer hopefully
is getting the idea that he isn't going to get to run away with a big bag of money
after destroying my neighborhood.
What will happen next? I can only see good faith negotiation with me in the driver's
seat as the answer. Some overtures were made by the developer earlier in the game
but apparently I was mistaken as stupid as the offers were all weighted in favor
of the developer.
I guess it is a novel concept for the LMD/developer complex that the creation of
new lots should be legal. Hopefully the case of Maxwell v LC & D will help to
keep the complex honest in the future.
The Land Management Division has spent lots of the taxpayers' money in fighting me.
Will they continue to play games now that the C of A has informed us that the mess
at the end of Fire Road must be fixed? Stay tuned.
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