McDonald's clears planning commission

In front of a packed house on Thursday, October 21, the Sisters Planning Commission approved the application by Cache Mountain Development for a new building containing a restaurant (McDonald's), a convenience market and a gas station in the Highway Commercial Zone west of town.

Because of expected opposition to the project, Chairman Dave Marlowe emphasized that any failure to raise issues at this meeting would invalidate an appeal. Any appeals from this meeting will be directed to the Sisters City Council. Further appeals will go to the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).

City Planner Bill Adams recommended approval with 22 conditions to be overseen by the planning department. Those conditions pertained to signage, architectural design (mainly Western theme), lighting, landscaping, paving, sidewalks and miscellaneous public works requirements.

Tia Lewis, attorney for the applicants, stated that the developers would accept and abide by the conditions of approval.

Seven speakers followed -- one in favor, six opposed. Opposition ranged from not wanting "corporate America" moving into Sisters to charges of specific zoning and code violations.

The most heated discussion centered on whether there was more than one drive-up/drive-in/drive-through facility in the development. If so, that would be a violation of the code that permits only one such facility on one block, or for a distance of 400 linear feet along the same street frontage.

The planning department's position was that the gas station was not a drive-up/drive-in/drive-through facility, therefore the 400-foot ruling did not apply. Several in the room, including Commissioner Kevin Miller, disagreed.

In her rebuttal to opponents, attorney Lewis said, "We are respectful of people's feelings about corporate America, but McDonald's is allowed by the current code." She added, "We believe we are at the end of the road, not the beginning."

Commissioner Ted Johnson's motion to approve the application with the conditions presented was met with a delayed second by Chairman Marlowe.

At that point Commissioner Bob Temple re-raised the issue of traffic flow in and out of the facility. Temple agreed to approval if a second access from Railway Street was reinstated.

So, with that access added as Condition #23, the commission approved the application, with conditions, by a vote of 3 to 1, with Commissioner Kevin Miller casting the dissenting vote.

The Sisters Development Code may be viewed at http://www.ci.sisters.or.us/zoning.shtm.