The Legislature has passed the halfway point in the 2019 session, so the initial culling of
bills has
taken place. There is no guarantee that the
remaining bills
will pass, or pass in their current form, but
they
have survived the first major hurdle. There are several land-use related bills that are of major concern
for land use advocates, and that would impact the coast.
Senate Bill 88
would allow counties to authorize construction of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on lands zoned for rural residential use, but the bill does not address important concerns about
adding
dwellings in wildfire-prone areas and
limiting
vacation rentals. Vacation rentals and their impact on communities and neighborhoods is a very serious, and growing, problem on the coast.
Senate Bill 961
is a potentially dangerous coastal bill that increases the amount of shoreland that could be lined with riprap. This bill was introduced by Sen. Roblan for Searidge Condos in Lincoln Beach, home to a long-simmering riprap controversy. This bill has not yet had a hearing. Then there is
House Bill 2377
, the perplexing bill that (as amended) would appropriate $452,390 from the General Fund to the Department of Administrative Services to accept bids for the first phase of a sediment study on the lower Rogue River. There is no need for such a study; the dire state of the lower Rogue is well known from previous studies. Interestingly, the original bill as introduced provided for the study to be done by Douglas Timber Operators, of all unlikely
organizations to conduct a science-based study of river ecology.
Finally, there is House Bill 2469, which allows counties to approve a second dwelling on forestland near an existing dwelling, for the owner or relatives. The owner can only get the new
housing for
the purpose of having relatives assist in the harvesting, processing or replanting of forest products or operation of forest lots. The new parcel has to be managed as a working forest, and the county may not allow the new dwelling to be used as a vacation rental dwelling. The problem here
is, of course,
enforcement; such a bill would be essentially impossible to enforce. It also further fragments forestlands.