McDonald's appeal hearing set

An appeals hearing on a proposed McDonald's drive-through will go forward as scheduled despite the fact that the city planning department missed a local deadline for publication of public notice.

The December 9 meeting of the Sisters City Council is an appeal hearing regarding the Planning Commission's ruling to allow Cache Mountain Development LLC to construct a new building containing a restaurant (McDonald's), a convenience market, and a gas station in the Highway Commercial Zone northwest of town.

The appeal filed by Mark Peterson, representing a Sisters citizens group, will center on the issue of whether there is 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. A second issue concerns traffic impact at the entrance to the development.

The written appeal states that the applicant: 1. Does not meet the Development Code prohibiting more than one drive-in/drive-up/drive-through facility within 400 linear feet along the same street frontage and, 2. exceeds the traffic impact as dictated by Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

The appeal further states that the wrong definition was used to determine traffic impact at the intersection of Railroad Street and Highway 20.

The Planning Department's position is that, by code, the gas station is not a drive-up/drive-in/drive-through facility; therefore, the 400-foot ruling does not apply.

For the hearing of the appeal, the council opted not to have all testimony repeated from the beginning. Rather, it will review the record as presented to the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission on October 21 and will hear any additional new testimony before making a ruling.

Appeals beyond the city council must go to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).

City officials missed The Nugget deadline for publishing the required public notice for the December 9 hearing.

Normally, required notices would appear in the local newspaper. But, according to City Planner Bill Adams, the legal requirement is to publish such notices in a newspaper of general circulation. So the city was still able to keep to the rules by publishing the notice in a daily edition of The Bulletin.

The hearing, open to the public, will be held in City Hall on December 9 beginning at 7 p.m.