The year 2022 was a disaster for governance in Curry County. Again the budget process was chaos, and the spending spree continues. Recom-mendations from the committee to advise on allocating American Rescue Plan funds were ignored. The Board of Commissioners picked some pet projects to funnel the money to, and the Sheriff got a bundle of it. A much needed plan for transitional housing for the homeless was turned down for ARP funding, and the most negative elements in the community bullied and harangued the applicant in public meetings. A local radio program aired a well-researched episode on county corruption – and named names.

The decision to radically revise zoning in county-controlled areas was one of the worst of the year. If it stands, the new zoning ordinance will change our communities radically, opening the floodgates to short-term vacation rentals virtually everywhere outside the three cities. Because this new STR regula-tion confers land-use rights, it will be extremely difficult to rein in bad actors. Enforcement of regulations to ensure liveability for residents will be a nightmare – as counties and cities in Oregon, indeed all over the world, already know. The county currently has no cap in place on the number of STRs permitted. And this disruption may be coming to a neighborhood
near you.

The new ordinance also ups the allowable housing density in rural zones. While new, affordable housing is badly needed, this is not the way to get it. Assumptions were made by the planning director that some developers are not going to be able to comply with existing requirements, say for siting a septic system, and that will suffice to limit overweening applicants. As development moves out to rural areas, little consideration is being given to impacts on adjacent resource lands, resources such as drinking water, transportation deficits, and fire protection. Can already budget-stressed
Curry County meet these additional needs?

All of the above is prologue and context for the following update.

As soon as the new zoning code was enacted in September, it was appealed by two citizens and Oregon Coast Alliance to the Land Use Board of Appeals. One of those citizens also began a referendum to place the code on the ballot in 2024. 100 Friends of Port Orford has supported both efforts, raising money for attorneys and more.

The LUBA appeal is stalled because the county’s record of proceedings is incomplete and otherwise shoddy, which the county is disputing. We are confident that this eventually will be resolved by the parties’ lawyers, but the fact that numerous public comments were omitted from the record the county submitted is troubling. Only issues raised in the hearing and in public comment and included in the record may be considered in the appeal.

The referendum did not get off the ground, unfortunately. The county clerk refused to approve the petition for circulation, citing the opinion of the former county counsel – given on his way out the door to a better job. He stated that the ordinance was adopted as an emergency land use decision and thus was “outside the scope of actions subject to the local referendum process” per the Oregon Constitution. Well, no, it wasn’t.

As the petitioner’s attorney responded, the ordinance makes no mention of emergency circumstances or states any reason that it should take effect immediately. The county was seriously in error in refusing to certify the signature petition, denying citizens the statutory 90 days to refer such a nonemergency ordinance to the electorate. Nevertheless, the county’s disingenuous footdragging ran out the clock, and the deadline for filing a referendum passed in early December. This creates a dangerous precedent for citizen activism in the future.

The LUBA appeal continues. And a parallel effort is ongoing to convince the BOC, through its current legal counsel, to voluntarily withdraw the ordinance and cure the worst of the problems. Given the county’s conduct to date, we are not hopeful that the BOC will do the right thing on its own. So far, more than a dozen STRs are on track for approval under the new ordinance. Walking that back will not be easy. Once permitted as a land use, rather than as simply another business, STRs gain significant advantages and cannot be curtailed, limited, or eliminated. Good news for nonresident investors; not so for the rest of us.

On August 17, the Board of Commissioners heard from 23 citizens who testified in person about Application ZOA.2022.01 – Amending the Curry County Zoning Ordinance. This was respectful, intelligent, insightful, experiential, meaningful testimony, almost exclusively from residents of North County opposed to the application. But it failed.

The commissioners had also received dozens of written comments before the hearing, some of which never made it into the meeting packet. (How many? We don’t know. Everything will be in the record, we were told.) Most of those comments were in opposition. Yet, after testimony they voted to close the hearing, close the record, and approve the amendments as presented by the planning commission, with no discussion and no modifications. After all that had been said.

Let’s be clear. Two men, Chair John Herzog and Commissioner Court Boice (Vice Chair Paasch was absent), approved this massive, wholesale revision of county land use regulation that is now virtually irrevocable. It is, and was meant to be, permanent.

Herzog and Boice piously declared that they “love” us in Port Orford, and “it’s not set in stone,” and “it’s not going to be the Wild, Wild West … , if things go crazy we can fix it.” It’s fair to wonder how simple any change would be, now that rights have been granted. It’s fair to wonder if the BOC understands that, or is being purposely disingenuous.

How Did This Happen?

But let’s recap the process that brought us this monster zoning package. For the record. (Review the changes here: https://cms6.revize.com/revize/currycountyor/Zoning%20Code%20Attachments%20-%20Articles%20I%20%20II%20%20III%20%20IV%20and%20%20VIII.pdf)

It is important to keep in mind that Curry County Planning Director Becky Crockett is the author (her word) of these zoning amendments. She pushed them through the Curry County Planning Commission, and she brooked no argument along the way. Though the process was ongoing for a year or more, very few realized the scope and intensity of what was being discussed.

There was activity going on in Gold Beach, sure. Four meetings of the Curry County Planning Commission in 2021 included some mention of short-term rentals (STRs) and/or additional dwelling units (ADUs). Summaries of those meetings indicate that few members of the public commented, and most of those were from the STR side. This was during a pandemic, remember, when vaccination was in the early stages and new variants were rampant. What kind of outreach was done?  

The first inkling of what was in store came in two memos from Planning Director Crockett in June 2021 – one on STRs, one on ADUs. Were these circulated widely at the time? No, they stayed within the confines of county planning commission meetings. Then in October came a new memo from the director, and at that point the commission requested that Crockett ask the BOC to create a task force to study STRs. [Source: Meeting Summary]

But in November, Crockett told the planning commission that “the BOC preferred action over a task force.” And, “she explained how upon application of Conditional Use Approval for an STR the Land Use Process could be used to protect STRs from referendums like Lincoln County’s, vesting their rights into the future.” STR owners’ rights would explicitly be paramount. Homeowners whose neighborhoods would be affected were not consulted. A number of STR owners spoke at this meeting, but no other members of the public. [Source: Meeting Summary]

On December 1, the BOC held a workshop on STRs. In addition to other items on the agenda was “potential regulation of vacation rentals.” There is a video but no minutes are available. On December 16, the planning commission reviewed the workshop. The summary for that meeting stated that “recent Lincoln County voter referendum requires STRs to be phased out over the next five years. … The Board of Commissioners heard public testimony and is interested in making STRs legal through land use regulation so that the fate of STRs won’t be subject to public vote.” [emphasis supplied]

Alarm Bells Begin Ringing

No meetings of the planning commission were held from January through April 2022. Then, for the May 19 meeting, the text of the zoning amendments sprang full-blown into a meeting packet for the first time – 13 documents plus an STR fee schedule. And still, no attempt was made to engage with any of the cities or citizens in general to explain the proposals and hear feedback. The county planning director did not come to Port Orford for meetings or hold any workshops for city staff, the Port Orford Planning Commission, or the Port Orford City Council.

In June, 2022, the massive package of zoning changes hit the fan finally with a newspaper ad noticing a July 21 planning commission hearing on the application. It was easy to miss what was up, because the description was terse and general. And besides, who reads our dinky county papers? Social media is where the majority get the news. But as Director Crockett told us, the newspaper ad satisfied state requirements.

Here’s what we reported after the July hearing: “Last Thursday’s County Planning Commission hearing was a shock to the six folks from Port Orford and Langlois who showed up to bring the word from Far North Curry. The massive amendments to county zoning passed unanimously, with no response to testimony from the public. The entire meeting took just over one hour. An hour to casually apply radical changes to land use all over the county. Outside of public comment from one Brookings resident, no other area was heard from! This is proof that public notice was wildly inadequate, as vigilant Port Orford residents pointed out. Most citizens had no idea what was being proposed. None of the letters of testimony (at least four that we know of) are available to the public, none of the written or in-person testimony was addressed during the hearing, and no questions were asked of anyone who testified. To those attending virtually, the commissioners’ discussion took place behind a black screen, since the camera in the hearing room was off. It was difficult to see who was talking, and the sound was bad. No commissioner identified him- or herself when speaking.”

After the amendments were passed on to the Board of Commissioners, official Port Orford sat up and took notice. On August 8, Curry County Planning Director Crockett was invited to a PO Council workshop. Many thought she should have taken the initiative and come to town long before. Doesn’t the UGB Joint Management Agreement between city and county require coordination of zoning changes?

Crockett’s responses to questions about STRs were brief and unsatisfactory. What about a moratorium or a cap in the face of an anticipated landslide of applications? No, the county wants to enact the regulations without restrictions, Crockett said, but it could be brought up during the BOC hearing on August 17. She told the PO Council that she did not know how many STRs are in the UGB currently. Since then, she has given the figure of 426 “in the county,” meaning all lands outside the three Curry cities. Some of these are known to be illegally sited on resource lands – farms and forests.

Some of what Crockett said was odd. “The code changes are not meant to increase density, but opportunity” for contractors to build workforce housing in the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) around the city. Again, commercial interests are being privileged over residents. The council met on August 12 to work out a position on the zoning amendments, which was communicated in a letter delivered to the BOC at the August 17 hearing.

The Decision and the Aftermath

Nearly two dozen North County residents gave oral testimony on August 17, and there were many letters sent to the BOC. Yet Herzog and Boice, the two commissioners present, sat through the public comment, joking with the audience from time to time. Then they got down to business, voting to approve the amendments exactly as presented by the planning director. There was no discussion.

When the room erupted in dismay after the decision, the commissioners tried to defuse the situation, declaring that they “love” us in Port Orford. Chair Herzog promised, “it’s not going to be the Wild, Wild West . . . , if things go crazy we can fix it. We can.” Empty promises, all things considered. They have granted rights with this law that won’t be easy to claw back. We recommend watching the public comment portion of the hearing on this video, starting at 2 hours and 15 minutes in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmijYZvrUBQ.

Final adoption of ZOA-2022.1 was set for September 7. Because it was on the consent calendar, no discussion could take place during regular order. But again citizens spoke up during public comment, urging the BOC to remove the item from the consent calendar and revisit the most egregious parts of the legislation. And again they refused to change one word and voted unanimously (all three commissioners were present) to adopt.

Part 2: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

To be continued . . .

The Port Orford City Council met on August 12 to consider what message to send down to the Board of Commissioners for its hearing on the 17th. A letter was drafted by the city administrator ahead of the meeting, and another letter (written by the mayor?) was in a handout available at the door. Did they choose one? No. Did they offer a third alternative? No. Will we know what the council is going to say before the 17th? Again, no.

The decision was made to have the mayor, city administrator, and city attorney draft yet another letter “expressing all of these concerns.” Concerns that, presumably . . . well, we don’t know exactly what they will be. Many approaches were discussed, both general and specific. Many concerns have been stated by the public and reiterated in meetings and in written comments.

So let’s just throw it all in a hat and hand that off to the BOC?

What we suspect is that the letter will not assert the city’s legal right to be at the table when any long-range planning is done in the Urban Growth Boundary — as mandated in the comprehensive plans of both Port Orford and Curry County, in the Joint Management Agreement between city and county, and in state planning goals and other statutes. Why not? The city does not want to be “insulting.” The city does not want to be “inflammatory.”

As the mayor seems to believe, “we don’t have much power and that’s why we need to be respectful . . . we’re asking them to have a conversation with us.”

But the city attorney advised the council that “if there are going to be appeals” and “if the city is going to be a party,” then “specific issues need to be brought up now and made a part of the record at the BOC meeting.” Yes, this is the way a land use hearing works, folks. If the BOC approves the zoning changes on the 17th, then the opportunity for conversation goes away. Except perhaps among the lawyers.

One thing that all seemed to agree on was the need to hit the pause button. We hope that the council’s letter will ask (demand would be a better word, given the circumstances) that (a) the BOC defer its decision on the zoning amendments, (b) continue the hearing, and (c) leave the record open for further testimony. Then Port Orford may have a chance to speak up and exert some control over future growth in its UGB.

Unless that happens, the time for talking will be over.

There’s still time for YOU to contact the BOC with YOUR concerns! And please tell them to slow the train down so that Port Orford can climb aboard.

The hearing is at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 17, at the County Annex, 94235 Moore St., Gold Beach. Attend in person, or follow on YouTube (you will have no opportunity to speak unless you are at the meeting in person).

BOC_Office@co.curry.or.us
Ph: (541) 247-3296
Fax: (541) 247-2718
(800) 243-1996

John Herzog, BOC Chair
541-247-3260
HerzogJ@co.curry.or.us

Christopher Paasch, BOC Vice Chair
PaaschC@co.curry.or.us
541-373-7203

Court Boice, Commissioner
BoiceC@co.curry.or.us
541-247-3229

Previously reported:

The Port Orford City Council met in a workshop on Monday, August 8, with Curry County Planning Director Becky Crockett. At the top of the agenda were the proposed zoning code changes as they relate to Port Orford’s Urban Growth Boundary. Crockett’s responses to questions from the council were often brief and seldom expansive, but a few things that were said stood out.

Crockett, who called herself the “author” of the changes, said a few words about how they came about. Then a councilor started the discussion by saying that the unregulated number of short-term rentals (STRs) was by far the biggest concern. Could a moratorium be put on them? Another councilor is worried that there will be a “landslide” of new applications, and he felt we should get out ahead of that possibility.

Crockett said that the issue of a potential moratorium has come up in discussions before the planning commission and the board of commissioners, but “they would actually like to put in place regulatory requirements ahead of making a determination” whether a moratorium is necessary. “That’s the position of those two bodies at this point.”

Later, she said that the council could bring ideas for a moratorium or a cap on STRs to the board of commissioners before their meeting on August 17, when the zoning changes are on the agenda. The BOC may go ahead and approve the changes without, but Port Orford could ask that the number of new STR applications in the UGB be tracked. If there’s still concern, the city could come back and ask the BOC to reassess.

Crockett said she does not know how many STRs are in the UGB currently.

Some of what Crockett said seemed counterintuitive. “The code changes are not meant to increase density, but opportunity” for contractors to build “workforce” housing. She stated that most construction now is for large, expensive single-family homes, and gave $557,000 as the median home sale price in Curry County, as of April. So, how would the code changes create incentive?

“We don’t think we’re allowing higher density,” Crockett said. “We’re spreading out density.” In the UGB, minimum lot size is one acre, unless municipal water and sewer are available. (They are not.) She said septic system requirements from DEQ would discourage triplexes and fourplexes. She did not explain why they would be permitted anyway.

When asked if increasing housing was mandated, Crockett said, “The state’s mandates are focused on large cities,” but Curry County has previously declared a housing emergency.

An overarching question brought up by the mayor was how do we plan for this increased population in the UGB and potential annexation? Crockett said that revising the Comprehensive Plan would facilitate a discussion of how to grow.

The city council will meet at 5 p.m. on Friday, August 12, to work out a council position on the zoning amendments to be communicated to the BOC. For more information, check https://portorford.org/city-council-meetings/

Looks like we’re going to get a meeting (workshop) with Port Orford and Curry County officials and the public, August 8 at 4:30. Read the packet materials below. Review the county zoning amendments that affect Port Orford. Curry County Zoning Amendments – July 21, 2022

Be there. And keep speaking up beforehand! Besides the Board of Commissioners, communicate with the PO City Council (City Hall, 541-332-3681 / https://portorford.org/city-council/). The UGB should not be more dense than the city, Curry County needs to coordinate planning with PO, and we want commonsense STR and ADU policies that we work out for ourselves!