ORCA took Clatsop County to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) over its amendments to county ordinances to increase density in the county’s unincorporated communities. ORCA argued that the county can’t simply take action to increase density without doing an analysis to determine whether the actions actually will increase housing opportunities.

The county argued it could make determinations on a lot by lot basis, but LUBA disagreed. They ruled that the county has to show that the cumulative impact of increased density would not endanger public health and safety or exceed the carrying capacity of the land, water and air. The county provided no evidence at all on these crucial questions. ORCA continues to push the county to undertake the necessary studies and thereby determine which actions will provide more housing opportunities by increasing densities – and which options should be avoided because of traffic impacts, sanitary considerations, water availability and similar concerns.

Please support ORCA’s continued advocacy in Clatsop County! This is going to be a long struggle to protect the livability of the rural communities and the carrying capacity of our land, air and water.

As ORCA has written before, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is facing a major budget shortfall in the next biennium. This is largely due to the agency having to rely on lottery funding for its daily operations. Two things are necessary to help the agency move to a stable funding base: reducing some expenses that would free monies for OPRD to spend on its mission, and undertaking research on how best to craft a stable funding source that will place the agency on solid footing for the future.

Several legislators, especially Sen. Anderson and Rep. Levy, have focused on this serious problem. In addition to passing the OPRD budget, there are two bills that would very much help OPRD as it moves into the future. One of these, SB 868A, would release OPRD from contracting rules and state printing rules, except in the case of surplus properties and IT matters. This bill is on the way to passage, and hopefully will make it over the finish line. The other bill, SB 565A, is still in Ways and Means, a policy bill with some fiscal impact, which is (like many other similar policy bills) waiting in Ways and Means for agency budgets to be completed. This bill would move upkeep of the Capitol Grounds to the Department of Administrative Services, which has personnel actively engaged in grounds management. This bill would also direct OPRD to undertake a study of budget solutions to find a stable funding base, and report to the interim committees of the Legislature related to parks no later than September 2026. 

The Legislature is now in the final weeks before adjournment sine die, which must happen on or before June 28th. Legislators are concentrating on budgets and final policy packages. ORCA is watching as closely as possible in hopes of ensuring that these two critical bills are passed.

ORCA has been steadily expanding its database of invisible land use decisions in the five coastal counties – with a slowdown the last couple of months due to the Legislature being in session – and discovering more and more disturbing news.

Coos County, which used to post administrative applications, consultant reports and decisions on its county website, does not now apparently post any land use decisions, administrative or otherwise, as of 2025. That means the only access to information would be the state permitting website, which is difficult to access and nearly impossible to use as a means of locating specific decisions. The same appears to be the case with Lincoln County, which as of now posts issues coming before the planning commission, but no administrative applications or decisions. Many counties, Coos and Lincoln included, don’t even post applications and decisions on the state website — only a single sheet listing what decisions have been made.

This slow, invisible erosion of public information about planning decisions, all of which affect the communities in which they take place, is very concerning. ORCA is continuing to bring these decisions to light so that at least the public knows what is happening next door. Keep checking back to our website!