News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Dick and Sharon Mooney have won another battle in an ongoing fight over the development of 38.57 acres on Indian Ford Creek.
The state Land Use Board of Appeals upheld a decision by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners allowing the property to be partitioned into three parcels.
The Friends of Indian Ford, Howard Paine and Maret Pajutee, petitioned LUBA to review the county decision. They argued, among other claims, that the development lies within an unmapped floodplain, one that would have been zoned accordingly if the county had mapped it.
In upholding the county's approval, LUBA declared that "the subject property is not within the floodplain zone. That the petitioners believe the property is within a de facto floodplain does not make it part of the floodplain zone."
According to the LUBA opinion, the Mooneys "application is based on the current zoning of the property, not on the zoning petitioners believe is appropriate."
Daniel Stotter, the Eugene attorney for Friends of Indian Ford, told The Nugget that the group will decide shortly whether to appeal the LUBA action to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
If an appeal is filed, Stotter said, the floodplain issue would be central.
The question is, Stotter said, "can Deschutes County rely upon the fact that they have not mapped a floodplain to say that it is not protected by their floodplain ordinance? What that amounts to, from our perspective, is a `don't know, don't care' policy."
According to Stotter, the appeals court could rule that the county's decision does not uphold the purpose of the floodplain ordinance, or it could remand the decision back to the county for further review.
In any case, Stotter said, Friends of Indian Ford want to see the floodplain along Indian Ford Creek mapped completely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
According to Sharon Mooney, construction of the Mooney home on one of the parcels is underway with a completion date projected for next fall. She said the other two parcels are ready to be built upon and are on the market.
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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