PLANNING COMMISSION Date: April 19, 2016 MINUTES Time: 6:00pm Location: Board of Commissioners Meeting Room 513 Center Street, Lakeview, OR 97630 Members Present Members Absent/Excused Staff Present Meredith Smith Chair Justin Ferrell (excused) Darwin Johnson Planning Director Michael King John Flynn Chaylon Shuffield Ginger Casto Wes Davies Public in Attendance: Scott Edelman, Jon Jinings, Craig Stone of Craig Stone & Associates, Angela Powell, Jeremiah Grey, Amy Havel, Tim Harris, John Williams, Sarah Bunten, Mary Dinh Project Manager for Red Rock, Kevin Stuebe & Mike Warren. Meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Chairman (Chair) Meredith Smith, who explained the protocol of the meeting, safety exits and appeal procedures. Item #1: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Meeting minutes for February 16, 2016 and March 15, 2016 were presented to the Planning Commission for consideration. Com Shuffield made a motion to approve minutes for March 15, 2016 as well as February 16, 2016 as presented. The motion was seconded by Com Casto. Motion was approved 6-0 with Com Flynn stating he was not in attendance for the meeting on February 16, 2016. Item #2: CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT APPLICATION NO. 16-009-CUP: A Public Hearing concerning an application by Angela Powell to establish a Non Farm Dwelling on 10.00 acre parcel and to temporarily live in a recreational vehicle during the construction of a home. The property is described as: T39S, R18E, Sec. 16, TL1500 in an A-2, Agriculture Use Zone. A decision will be based on Articles 3, 18, 24 & 26 of the amended Lake County Zoning Ordinance of 1980. Planning Director (Dir) Johnson started off the hearing with a quick overview of the Staff Report by first calling their attention to the google map on the overhead screens. Dir Johnson stated the property was in Big Game Habitat. Dir Johnson continued by saying the ordinance does allow for a temporary use permit to be issued under the conditions outlined in the Staff Report, during construction as long as building permits are active. Dir Johnson pointed out the letter from Craig Foster, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) which did not make it into the packets but copies had been handed out prior to the meeting. Jeremiah Grey (co-applicant) stated they are planning on building a small home, approx. 800 sq. feet. He continued to say they want to make a small footprint on the land and are planning on using solar. Grey continued to say they are still trying to figure out the composting toilets with State of Oregon restrictions. Discussion continued on the access to the property and the road appeared to be running through the property. Chair Smith closed the public testimony portion of the meeting to open it to the Planning Commission Members for discussion. Chair Smith entertained a motion. Approved April 19, 2016 Page 1 of 6
Com Casto made a motion to approve application #16-009-CUP accepting the Staff Findings as presented. The motion was seconded by Com Flynn. Motion was approved 6-0. Other Business: Jon Jinings, Community Services Specialist for DLCD along with his colleague Scott Edelman stated they were present to observe the scheduled Red Rock hearing. Jinings continued with a PowerPoint presentation he had shared at the Planning Directors meeting in Prineville the week prior. Jinings stated DCLD has received the go-ahead to engage in some investigation and discovery about the subject of non resource lands. He then continued to explain what this entailed and to give his presentation. Jinings explained the state will, in the next year or so, begin conversations with stakeholders around the State, followed by the rule making process. Discussion was then held on the possibility of a rezoning process and if this would be feasible for non resource lands. Discussion continued on the model code that had been presented. Chair Smith weighed in on the discussion by asking in the state how many applications were submitted for urban growth boundaries and how many were successful. Jinings responded by saying not very many, but those that happen are reasonably successful. A break was then taken before the joint public hearing before the Town and County PCs. Item #3: NOTICE OF LEGISLATIVE HEARING: COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY COUNTY APPLICATION NO. 15-043-CPA- UGB; TOWN APPLICATION NO. 667 The Town of Lakeview Planning Commission and the will hold a joint public hearing regarding Land Use Application No. 667 (Town) and 15-043-CPA-UGB (County) submitted by Red Rock Biofuels on April 19, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. in the Board of Commissioners Meeting Room located at the Lake County Courthouse, 513 Center Street, Lakeview, Oregon. The Town Council and County Board have determined that approval of this proposal may affect the permissible uses of your property, and other properties in the affected zone, and may change the value of your property. See maps for details. Dir Johnson explained this would be a Legislative Hearing and both the Town and County would be making recommendations to the Board of Commissioners and Town Council on the proposal. Chair Tim Harris, Town of Lakeview Planning Commission continued with an explanation of the purpose of the hearing. Dir Johnson was asked to give an overview of the application. Jeff Manternach, Red Rock Biofuels, LLC (from a conference call) continued by thanking both the Town and County for the work which has been done. He continued by making introduction of the people in the room that were representing Red Rock; Mary Dinh, Project Manager for Red Rock and Craig Stone of Craig Stone & Associates. Mr. Stone gave an explanation of the application and the process followed. On January 15, 2015 the County, approved Red Rock s Biofuels facility in the county s A-2 Zone. That application was not appealed. Roughly a year later an extension was granted. In June 24, 2015 the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the standard air quality discharge permit. The proposed Urban Growth Boundary reconfiguration is not for the purpose of authorizing the biofuels facility, as it has already been approved. The sole purpose of the Urban Growth Boundary reconfiguration is to extend public sewer & water to serve the property. Annexations cannot occur unless the lands are in the Urban Growth Boundary and Sewer & Water owned by the Town of Lakeview cannot be extended outside the Approved April 19, 2016 Page 2 of 6
Towns corporate limits & Urban Growth Boundary unless the land is first included. The purpose of these land use applications has at its end objective the attainment of public water and sewer service. Oregon Law provides a legally sanctioned approach to remove land from the Urban Growth Boundary in order to take other land in. Urban Growth Boundaries can be amended in a few different ways. This way is a reconfiguration instead of adding more land to the Urban Growth Boundary. You first remove certain land and in its place add in other land. In pursuant to Oregon Law it has to be a like for like transfer. The proposed land to be included is 61 acres; the land to be taken out is 58 acres, while they are not exactly equal, Oregon Law also provides that cities & counties are not held to an unreasonable decision, in other words it doesn t have to be exact. Mr. Stone continued by stating the (4) four step land use actions each of which are (4) four separate applications; each requiring a separate action but are being reviewed in a consolidated process. Step 1: is the Urban Growth Boundary Reconfiguration that requires action by both the Town of Lakeview and Lake County; Step 2: The County Comprehensive Plan would be reversed the land taken in would be deemed Commercial and the land taken from the Urban Growth Boundary would be deemed Agriculture, essentially a reverse or like for like transfer. Because it is modifying the County Plan designation, only the County decision makers (Board of Commissioners) have the authority to approve, and the Town does not. Step 3: Extending County Zones: the land to be included is presently is zoned A-2 and the land to be excluded is zoned as C-1. The County has authority to approve this step. Step 4: (see Atlas Page 8) This property has a C-1 Commercial designation and has a Town overlay Plan designation Industrial Park. In the reconfiguration we are also changing to take that designation Commercial & Industrial Park overlay and apply it to Red Rock facility site. And then respectively to land within the Urban Growth Boundary once it is removed than the Town has no jurisdiction authority. This last step would apply the Town s designation Industrial Park Overlays which is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Town. Mr. Stone continued to share that they have agreed to stipulate a couple of items: 1: if the Town and County act favorably on these applications, the applicant will start the preparation of adoption of the ordinances for review and approval by the County. 2: because the entire taxlot for the biofuels property is more than 61 acres, the applicant agrees to partition that portion of land not proposed to be including in the UGB if required by the county. Chair Smith asked if there were any questions from the Town of Lakeview or the County Planning Commission members. Com Shuffield asked why the applicants were not just asking for an expansion to the UGB instead of this swap. Mr. Stone answered it was just a choice in how to proceed. Mr. Stone continued by saying as applicants, they would have had to show a need for additional land and in their analysis they viewed the inventory as fairly substantial of existing commercial and industrial lands; so rather than saying the community needs more, we are already saying we have enough but will remove some of the land we already have to include the new land. Also stating it creates a much narrower focus for possible error. Chair Smith indicated it would be an appropriate time for public comment. Sarah Bunten started by saying she didn t believe that the proposal is like for like, because the change from Agricultural Land to Commercial for an Industrial Company, when they proposed company is not commercial; further stating that the definition of Commercial Land is completely different than Industrial Land. Industrial Land is a zoning designation for areas used for industry. These are businesses that generally manufacture or generate products that are sold to commercial businesses, that is who they are. Mrs. Bunten inquired of the PCs the process involved in the Industrial Park Overlay amendment; Dir Johnson had indicated the applicant applied and notice has been submitted to the State of Oregon. Approved April 19, 2016 Page 3 of 6
Bunten continued by saying she didn t see a permit for storm water drainage for the project, and her opinion that because our Town doesn t have drainage for storms they would need to put a pond in the area for all their chemicals to drain into. Bunten continued with her air quality concerns and Red Rock s a DEQ discharge permit. She alluded that the Town and County had made commitments in past Air Quality meetings that they would not expand the UGB, because of the DEQ category of sustainment. Bunten continued to say she feels there isn t enough wood out there for Red Rock to use for the project which again it goes back to air quality & the DEQ permit they have. Mention of the proposed 40 to 50 loads of wood was part of her arguments. Also that they will need green cut wood and that the U.S. Forest Service has no thinning projects two years for at least the next two years. Chair Smith stated that if Mrs. Bunten had a problem with DEQ she needed to talk with them. Chair Smith ask the Town of Lakeview Planning Commission if there was anyone that wanted to respond to Mrs. Bunten s question. Planning Director Janine Cannon responded by saying she wasn t quite clear about what Mrs. Bunten was asking. Dir Cannon continued by asking if Mrs. Bunten was asking about the comment to allow Industrial Use as a permitted use? Dir Johnson said he thought what Mrs. Bunten was talking about is what Mr. Stone described as Step (4) which is the Industrial Park Overlay Zone amendment. Town Council last week initiated that process. Town Manager, Ray Simms indicated they have an Industrial Park Master Plan already in place. The proposal (Step 4) would amendment the Master Plan to cover this Red Rock property and not cover the excluded property. Mrs. Bunten asked since it was adopted was it sent to the State for approval? Mr. Simms answered she was talking about two different things. Mr. Simms said notice was given to the State of Oregon. Further discussion on Step 4 ensued. Mr. Stone spoke up saying he believed the materials they had submitted is for all (4) four steps. Mr. Stone continued by saying the first one was for the reconfiguration but all four should be on the agenda and part of this procedure. Dir Cannon addressed Mrs. Bunten by saying there was a public hearing scheduled before the Town Planning Commission on May 9, 2016 and it was noticed today with the LCD. This is for purposes of amending the Town s Industrial Park Overlay Zone to allow other uses. Mrs. Bunten asked if it would be announced in the paper. Dir. Cannon answered it should be in next week s paper. Chair Smith asked if there was any more public testimony. Mr. John Williams addressed Chair Smith stating his confusion by the statement about the alternative sites would not be a part of this hearing but the applicant themselves said there must be an alternative site analysis as part of this proceeding and in fact they looked at a dozen other sites & rejected every one of them, which indicates maybe there isn t adequate land available for industrial development at this time and perhaps land should be added to the UGB. He continued by saying this application is being processed as a Legislative decision and that they believe it should be handled as a Quasi-Judicial decision as it meets the criteria initiated by a private developer. Mr. Williams continued by saying the most important issue is allowing additional opportunity for public comment and keeping the record open because they are very concerned that a Legislative decision won t allow for that. He continued by asking for a continuation to allow them more time to submit further comments after they review the application materials. Williams stated his issues with the inclusion property being an 87 acre parcel and that only a portion of it would be included leaving the remainder in Agriculture. Williams continued by saying they believed the site to be excluded is more suitable for the project then the site they are proposing. He also stated their concerns about the possibility of the exclusion site as an alternative was not adequately discussed or considered. Mr. Williams continued with the traffic Approved April 19, 2016 Page 4 of 6
compliance with Goals for Traffic because the letter they submitted from Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) discusses 40 trucks a day coming into that site but there have been other submittals to other agencies such as DEQ which talk about as many as 65 trucks to the site. In conclusion, Mr. Williams submitted a 20 page written document, prepared by the Craig Law Center, on behalf of himself, Robert Waits and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, which deals with all of these issues in greater depth. Chair Smith asked Mr. Stone if he had any rebuttal at this time. Stone responded by further explaining the like for like transfer and similarities in acreage. Stone further indicated in his opening remarks he had mentioned that Oregon Law does not require an unreasonable amount of accuracy and that the transfer of 58 for 61 acres is reasonably accurate & sufficient to carry the burden of proof in this instance. Stone continued by saying Mrs. Bunten will find there is no DEQ permit for storm drains and that they believed one is not necessary in this instance, but to the extent one is, it will be a requirement of development but that s a DEQ process. Stone again explained that this is an exchange, not an expansion, so the AQ concerns raised by Mrs. Bunten about air quality permits did not apply to this process; further pointing out that in Volume 1 and the various exhibits, stating there was an air contaminate discharge permit dated June 20, 2015. Mr. Stone indicated their research show a substantial amount of woody biofuels available in this part of Oregon, but again, that is not relevant to this proceeding. Stone continued by saying Red Rock was getting ready to invest a whole lot of money on the expectation that there are biofuels they can process and they believe there is sufficient feed stock for the facility. Mr. Stone referred to the alternative sites and the Oregon Priority Lands Statute. The alternative sites identify 8 or 10 alternatives in the surrounding area within the whole community of Lakeview. Each were examined through the State s various priorities and Red Rock has ascertained that this land is the best alternative. The alternative sites analysis is included in Exhibit 3. Mrs. Bunten indicated the reason she said what she did about the wood products was because she has work for the Forest Service doing all of the mapping and there isn t that much up there when you go to cutting 40 to 50 truckloads a day. Scott Edelman, Regional Representative for the Department of Land Conservation & Development (DLCD), indicated that he and Jon Jinings wanted to make a statement about how the DLCD fits into the process just to make sure it was clear, since there have been a few things said about the State s rules. There are (4) four processes going on and DLCD is involved in Step 1 more than the others, because it is over 50 acres it goes up to the DLCD for review by our director and the LCDC for final approval, which if appealed would go to the court system. He continued by saying the other (3) three steps, DLCD is a participant, and can raise issues and appeal the process but it is a local decision decided by the Town and the County which then can be appealed. DLCD s involvement so far has been as a member of the Governor s Regional Solutions Team, which is tasked with economic development as one of its primary goals around the State. LCDC is ultimately commissioned to make the decision on the boundary. Although DLCD can t take a position necessarily, they have been working closely with staff and with Red Rock through this proposal. Red Rock has come determined this is their best route to obtaining what they desire for the project and DLCD at this point have seen no red flags. DLCD Staff involvement includes: Jon Jinings; UGB Specialist, Gordon Howard; and Economic Development Specialist, Tom Hogue. Edelman concluded by saying DLCD has been comfortable with what has been presented as a solution for this UGB Amendment. Mrs. Bunten asked how the DLCD justified the like for like. Edelman answered he didn t have anything to add to what Mr. Stone had said as far as this goes, and it is a similar amount of land and quality of land being swapped out. Approved April 19, 2016 Page 5 of 6
Chair Smith stated if there wasn t any objection from the Chair of the Lakeview Planning Commission he would close the public testimony at this time. Discussion continued between Dir Cannon and Chair Smith about presented testimony that had not been reviewed as yet. Chair Harris indicated before a decision could be made they needed to review the materials submitted. It was decided they would adjourn till 8:30pm to give the Planning Commission members time to review the material submitted. (THE MEETING RECESSED UNTIL 8:30pm) Chair Smith called the meeting back to order. Chair Smith then stated because of the points drawn and especially whether it should be a Quasi-Judicial or Legislative Hearing the PC was going to defer any further testimony and decision making until April 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM, which will give the applicant a chance to read and respond to the submission by Mr. Williams and provide the PCs any necessary rebuttal. In the meantime both Planning Commissions will consult with Legal Counsel as to whether this should be a Quasi-Judicial or Legislative hearing. Once we get an answer to that question we will meet and proceed as learned Counsel instructs us to proceed. Chair Smith said he would entertain a motion to close the meeting and asked the Planning Commission of the Town of Lakeview to proceed. A motion was made and seconded by the Town of Lakeview s Planning Commission to continue the proceedings to April 25, 2016 @ 6pm at the Courthouse. Com Shuffield made a motion to continue the proceedings until April 25, 2016 @ 6:00pm here at the Courthouse. Motion was seconded by Com Casto. Motion passed 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:38pm. Respectfully Submitted, Darwin Johnson Jr. Planning Director APPROVED 21 June 2016 by vote of 6-0-1 (Ferrell not at the meeting.) Approved April 19, 2016 Page 6 of 6