Cyrus family files Measure 37 claim

Sisters area residents Keith and Connie Cyrus and the Cyrus Living Trust have filed three claims totaling $37 million against Deschutes County.

The claims were filed under Measure 37, approved by Oregon voters last year.

The claims, the second largest filed to date in the State of Oregon according to the Department of Land Conservation and Development, state that land use changes made by Deschutes County on the Cyrus’s 1,135 acres of farmland in the Cloverdale area prevent them from subdividing their land intohomesites.

According to documents filed with the county, the Cyruses want their claim approved or to be given permission to have the option to subdivide the land into 227 five-acre tracts.

“Subdividing our land is not something we want to do overnight,” said Keith Cyrus. “We just want to have that option if we decide in the future that we cannot make a living with our farming.”

The property is located about three miles east of Sisters south of Highway 126 and west of Cloverdale Road. The land was used to grow peppermint roots and potatoes in the past and hay in recent years. As the Cyruses have faced insect and disease problems with some crops and falling prices with other crops, they are looking at how they can make a living from their land.

“Having our claims total $37 million under the Measure 37 authority was just a coincidence,” Cyrus explained. “When we added up our separate claim amounts, it happened to total that amount.”

About 800 acres are owned by Keith and Connie Cyrus and other acres are owned by the Cyrus Living Trust.

The grandchildren of the Cyruses are sixth-generation Central Oregonians. Keith’s great-grandfather settled in Central Oregon in the 1800s and each generation has farmed in the Cloverdale area since then. In the 1990s, the Cyrus family developed Aspen Lakes Golf Course and subdivision along Camp Polk Road.

“We would prefer to keep right on farming and improving our lands for the next generation,” Cyrus said.

“But we need to make a living doing that. It gets tougher each year with rising costs of electricity, fuel and other expenses while the market for our products stays low.”

Recognizing that there are critics for developing agricultural lands, he said he would be glad to have any of those critics visit their lands and explain how a higher level of profit can be attained.

“We have had Oregon State University Extension people out here giving us good advice over the years and we have kept up with the technology of irrigation and farming, but it just hasn’t been enough,” he said.

“We really just want our property rights given back to us,” said Connie Cyrus.

There has been more than farming on the Cyrus property. They have developed a 13-acre reservoir both to provide water for irrigation and to create a private recreational area for their annual family reunion and other private gatherings.

A nursery has been established to raise trees and shrubbery for planting on their property as added wildlife habitat.

Areas where gravel has been removed will be developed as ponds for ducks and other waterfowl.

“We are sort of an island of agricultural land here,” Keith Cyrus said. “Lands to our west and to the south have been subdivided and we want to have that same option for the future.”

This claim brings the total number filed in Deschutes County to 28 totaling more than $50 million, according to Tom Anderson, community development director. Deschutes County has not yet acted on any of the claims.

Some view the Cyrus claim as justifiable since the exclusive farm use zoning was initiated by Deschutes County without approval by the owners.

The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development required the county to complete land use zoning. Others are concerned with the potential loss of productive farmland.

The Cyruses are aware that some are critical of their wanting the option to develop their lands after their successful two-year legal lawsuit aginst Central Electric Cooperative to keep major power transmission poles from being installed through their property.

Central Electric stated that the poles were needed to provide more dependable electrical service to the growing Sisters area. The Cyrus family challenged the proposal because of the visual impact on their land.

“I told the cooperative that we had turned down an offer of $1,500 a month for a cellular tower to be placed on a ridge, so why would I want many power poles installed in the same area?” he said.

Cyrus insists he attempted to negotiate with the cooperative, but had nosuccess.

Both of the Cyruses see a connection between declining farm income in the United States and a greater amount of food products being imported to this country from countries with lower labor costs and little or no environmental restrictions.

The state legislature is currently reviewing the application of Measure 37 and at least one lawsuit has been filed challenging the law. The state attorney general has ruled that land-use waivers granted to landowners may not be transferred to new owners.

That opinion will be tested later this summer in a lawsuit filed by Crook County seeking to support their ordinance that such waivers do transfer.