In August the Coos County planning commission approved Michael Keiser’s New River golf course proposal in the Twomile Creek watershed south of Bandon. As we have said repeatedly, the planning commission failed to do a solid weighing of evidence, and entirely glossed over the major stumbling blocks for a golf course, most especially water availability. Other problems, such as the prohibition of placing a golf course on high value farmland, and the impact on adjacent farms, were also dismissed with little or no investigation.

ORCA has appealed this decision to the Coos County Board of Commissioners, in hopes of having a more balanced investigation of the serious problems with placing a golf course in this area. Elected officials need to listen more closely to the local farmers and other residents of the area, who brought excellent information on the many problems with traffic, water supply and farm viability in this small watershed.

Clatsop County is in the throes of doing major revisions both of its housing provisions in the county zoning code and (separately) updating the Coastal Goals in the Clatsop County Comprehensive plan.

Housing Amendments: Clatsop County has been working to make non-mandatory changes in the zoning code that they hope will facilitate and encourage housing throughout the county’s rural zones and unincorporated communities. The county, however, admits that it has no data indicating that its proposed changes will actually increase the housing supply. Some of the proposals are quite controversial, and will greatly impact community livability. These include reducing lot sizes for single family dwellings from 7,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet, and allowing multiplexes in many zones at a greater density than currently. In addition, the county hopes to greatly reduce the amount of public involvement in many housing decisions by changing them to the Type I category, which allows no public notice, no public opportunity for comment and no right of appeal of the county decision. ORCA considers the Type I category to be contrary to the land use laws, as Goal One stresses the importance of public involvement in land use decision-making.

The county has just published a second version of the housing amendments, which will be open for public comment until November 13, 2024. The first hearing on these proposals will be before the county planning commission on Tuesday, October 8th. To review the proposals, click here

Coastal Goals: Clatsop County has also embarked on updating the county’s Comprehensive Plan, and is now working on Goal 16 (Estuarine Resources) Goal 17 (Coastal Shorelands) and Goal 18 (Beaches and Dunes). For more information on this process, click here

The county is trying to do several things with these updates, including getting more precise and sophisticated maps in place than were available thirty or more years ago. The county also wants to revisit the zoning in estuaries that allow or prohibit various uses, and establish requirements for submarine cable landings, for the first time.