Industrial plans win county approval

The Sisters School District and Barclay Meadows Business Park have cleared a major hurdle toward developing property for light industry on a pair of 30-acre parcels at the north edge of Sisters.

The Deschutes County Commissioners unanimously agreed Wednesday, July 26, to approve two plan amendments and zone changes for the two parcels.

The commissioners overrode the opinion of one of the county's land use hearing officers, attorney Karen Green. Green had recommended denial of the applications based on concerns about the impact of substantial industrial development in a city area with inadequate transportation access.

Neighbors residing in the Trapper Point subdivision adjacent to the sites to the north, as well as the Alliance for Responsible Land Use in Deschutes County (ARLU DeCo), opposed the changes.

The developers and the City of Sisters crafted an agreement in March in which the developers promised to pay over $150,000 each to mitigate traffic impacts. That agreement cleared the way for the county decision.

The commissioners said their decision was to conform to the wishes of the City of Sisters.

"Sisters, through its elected officials (the city council), has said it wants this," said commissioner Tom DeWolf.

He, Luke, and chair Linda Swearingen all agreed that it would be inappropriate for he county to dictate or force a differing opinion upon another jurisdiction. City voters have already authorized annexation of the properties, once the land use process is completed.

The commissioners gave the green light allowing the City of Sisters to bring the parcels within its Urban Growth Boundary. The second part of the proposal involves changing the zoning to the "Light Industrial" (IL) category.

The decision, however, is not expected to lead to change anytime soon.

Before the city's comprehensive plan can be amended to allow the sites in question into the urban boundary, the plan must be approved. Sisters City Planner Neil Thompson said that neither the plan, nor its Transportation Systems Plan (TSP) have received final state approval.

"I've had to put them on the back-burner while I spent the past year working on the sewer issue," explained Thompson. "I'll start to work on them now... but (completion is) at least six months out."

Thompson also told the commissioners that the Sisters City Council couldn't, by law, vote on the final proposal until 45 days after the plan received state approval.

Commissioner Dennis Luke asked county counsel Bruce White to work with the City of Sisters to prepare a development agreement between the city, the county, and the developers to ensure that compatibility issues with neighboring properties and zoning regulations were resolved.

"This issue has taken way too much time," he said.

It may take much more. Howard Paine of ARLU DeCo told the commissioners his group was strongly considering a lawsuit challenging the legality of the proposed changes. County counsel White said a lawsuit could lead to a delay of several years.