News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Deschutes County's approval of a proposed gravel mine and crushing operation four miles west of Sisters will stand, at least for now.
In a 3-0 vote Monday, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners declined to hear an appeal of the county hearings officer's approval of the mine site plan filed by Crown Pacific and Hap Taylor and Sons, Inc.
Mine opponents say they will now appeal that approval to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. They also said they were working to locate alternative mine sites that would keep the impacts of a mine away from Sisters.
Commissioners cited a variety of reasons for declining to hear an appeal.
Commissioner Bob Nipper said that "the surface mine proposed west of Sisters is far and away the largest single source of gravel in Deschutes County at 11 million cubic yards. Other proposed mines have been denied because Deschutes County had that location identified in the state required inventory in 1990. If we attempted to deny that mining capability we would be violating Goal 5.
"I'm disappointed that Sisters had 80 percent funding for a bypass a couple of years ago and a small vocal group fought it," Nipper said. "This would have solved at least in part the truck travel through town and the emotionalism associated with this issue."
Nipper was appparently unaware that as recently as last January, Mark Devoney, planner with the Highway Divison of the State Department of Transportation, told members of the Sisters community that there is no money available for a bypass, a position ODOT has maintained for years.
Nipper also agreed with Commissioner Barry Slaughter that there was little point in hearing a long and complicated appeal on an issue that would inevitably end up going to LUBA.
"I think it'll end up going there (to LUBA) anyway," Slaughter said. "It's going to be appealed either way.
"I find it redundant and costly to hear it here," he said. "I don't really have any other reason not to hear it."
Opponents of the mine do not accept those arguments.
John Hornbeck, a leader of the mine opponents, told The Nugget that county staff had previously informed the commissioners that the mine applicants have revised down the amount of aggregate available on the site from 11 million cubic yards to five million.
Hornbeck said that the commissioners' emphasis on getting the gravel out set up a situation of "gravel versus people and the people lost.
"I think they made a political decision," Hornbeck said. "I think this decision convinces a lot of people that money talks.
"This is clearly the most significant land use decision . . . in the last eight years and for the commissioners to posture this appeal as too time consuming and too technical is . . . shifting their responsibility," Hornbeck said.
Commissioner Nancy Schlangen indicated that the county's responsibilities in a case like this are narrowly defined. According to Schlangen, the commissioners were confined to reviewing a specific decision on a site plan.
"All we had before us was a site plan review," she said. "What Sisters is asking is far broader." She said that she could only vote to hear an appeal if a policy issue was at stake.
"I could not find a major policy question or a policy that was in error," Schlangen said.
Mine opponents will move on to fund-raising to process their LUBA appeal, Hornbeck said. Hornbeck's family and four other Sisters-area families have also filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the Forest Service should have done an environmental impact study before granting the applicant's an easement for the use of Forest Service roads on the site.
Hornbeck also reported that the mine opponents have been working with the Forest Service to locate possible mining sites on federal land that might be exchanged with the Forest Service for the current mine site. The possible relocation sites would move the impacts of gravel mining away from the Sisters area, Hornbeck said.
There has not been any negotiation with either Hap Taylor and Sons or with Crown Pacific involving a possible land swap or relocation of the mine site, Hornbeck said, but "they are aware of what we're doing."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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