City to hear remand of TUP issue

The dustup over the application for a temporary-use permit (TUP) for proposed events on a vacant lot in Sisters will go back before the Sisters City Council at their December 10 meeting.

The Council will hold a public hearing on a partial remand of the matter as handed down by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) last month. The hearing is set for 7 p.m. at City Hall. The hearing is limited to the issues that were the subject of the remand.

Controversy over the matter arose earlier this year when Celia Hung and/or Richard Esterman sought a temporary-use permit to host events on a vacant lot that Hung had leased on the corner of Cascade Avenue and Oak Street. The City ultimately granted the TUP, but with conditions that Hung and Esterman did not accept. They petitioned LUBA for a ruling on the matter, which was handed down earlier in October.

There were several points of contention and argument. LUBA sent the matter back to the City on the question of whether Esterman's TUP would qualify his events as "special events" under City definitions and whether event vendors should be eligible for transient merchant license (TML) fee waivers.

"If the City wishes to take the position that Special Event TML Fee Waiver does not apply to petitioners' vendors, simply because petitioners have now secured a TUP, it needs to (1) more clearly take that position in its decision, and (2) adopt interpretive findings to explain why the City Council believes TUPs do not qualify as 'special-event permits'..." LUBA ruled.

"On remand the City Council must consider whether petitioner Esterman's business license as an 'event coordinator' qualifies as a 'special-event permit' so that the TML fee waiver ... applies to petitioners' vendors, and adopt findings to explain its position on that issue."

The City Council just this month passed code revisions that change how the City handles licensing. It is not clear what bearing those revisions will have on the issues in the remand.

Esterman filed a letter of concern with the City regarding those code changes, stating his belief that they targeted his use of the lot on Cascade and Oak and alleging "manipulation by the (Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show), the City manager and staff."

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Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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