Wednesday, November 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
Deschutes County juggles religious freedom, deer populations
By Stephen Hamway
The Bulletin
SISTERS (AP) — In
2014, John Shepherd received
some surprising news.
Shepherdsfield, his nonprofit
church that hosts weddings
and other events, was in vio-
lation of a Deschutes County
provision designed to protect
mule deer and other wildlife.
Three years later, however,
that provision has trapped
Deschutes County between
a rock and a hard place.
County planners are pursuing
a code amendment that would
remove churches from the list
of buildings prohibited in a
portion of the county zoned
to protect wildlife, which
could help protect Deschutes
County from costly federal
lawsuits based on a per-
ceived violation of religious
freedom.
“C’mon, our First
Amendment rights are kind
of important,” Shepherd
said. “That’s what sepa-
rates us from Third World
dictatorships.”
However, environmental
groups have indicated they
could challenge the amend-
ment if it’s adopted, in order
to protect Deschutes County’s
increasingly vulnerable mule
deer population.
“They’ve been declining
for too long, they’re under
stress in this range any-
way,” said Carol MacBeth,
attorney for Central Oregon
LandWatch, during a hearing
on the proposed amendment.
The situation has been
brewing for a while.
Shepherd, who has been a
nondenominational pastor for
around 40 years, began hold-
ing church services from his
216-acre property outside of
Sisters in 1999, and said the
weddings began as an out-
growth of the church’s work.
Today, a large arch used dur-
ing weddings overlooks the
valleys and buttes of the High
Desert outside Sisters.
“It went so smoothly I
thought I could open this up
to the public and bless people
with an affordable place to
get married,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd held weddings
and other events at his home
on a semi-regular basis until
the county notified him of a
code violation three years
ago, stating that the opera-
tion was taking place in the
Metolius Winter Range,
where churches are prohib-
ited, alongside other uses,
including schools and dog
kennels.
Since that time, Shepherd
has spent around $10,000 on
a wedding permit and hear-
ings officer fees in order to
make the church compliant
with the county’s code.
In 2016, after the county
approved a permit, Central
Oregon LandWatch appealed
the decision, arguing that
county code prohibits
churches in the wildlife zone.
Later that year, the Oregon
Land Use Board of Appeals
overturned the permit.
However, the county’s
planning commission rec-
ognized that prohibiting
churches while permit-
ting agritourism operations,
including wine tastings and
farm tours, could leave it
vulnerable to a lawsuit based
on the Religious Land Use
and Institutionalized Persons
Act. The federal law, signed
by President Bill Clinton
in 2000, protects religious
houses of worship from dis-
crimination in zoning and
other land-use ordinances.
Shepherd said allowing
buildings like hunting lodges
and storage units, which
might have a similar impact
on deer, while prohibiting
churches is a clear violation
of the law. He added that he’s
working with a Michigan-
based lawyer who special-
izes in religious freedom
cases, and is prepared to file
a lawsuit if the county doesn’t
allow him to continue hold-
ing church services on his
property.
“Any federal lawsuit
is very expensive for the
county,” Shepherd said.
Still, MacBeth added that
she thought a lawsuit based
on the federal law would have
around a 5 percent chance
of success. Central Oregon
LandWatch is pushing for
the county to add an explicit
statement prohibiting assem-
blies and membership orga-
nizations in the deer winter
range.
Allowing churches just to
accommodate a potential law-
suit would be counter-produc-
tive, and could harm already
declining deer populations in
the area, MacBeth added.
“It’s not anything about
any religion, it’s just about
gathering places,” she said.
Corey Heath, biologist for
the Deschutes district of the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, said the depart-
ment estimates that 5,748
mule deer live in the Metolius
range, a significant decline
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from population totals in the
1970s and earlier. While deer
populations wax and wane
naturally in Central Oregon,
Heath said a growing num-
ber of residents in the region,
among other factors, makes it
difficult for the species to get
back on track.
They’ve been
declining for too long,
they’re under stress in
this range anyway.
— Carol MacBeth
“It gets harder and harder
(for the species) to recover,”
Heath said.
He added that buildings
that receive a lot of traf-
fic, including churches, can
destroy habitat and displace
populations of mule deer and
other large animals.
“Our concerns are not
with any one type of devel-
opment,” Heath said. “We’re
concerned with the long-term
success of the species.”
In the meantime, county
officials are looking for a
solution that balances reli-
gious freedom concerns with
concerns about deer habitat,
according to Peter Gutowsky,
Deschutes County’s planning
manager.
Earlier this month, the
county’s planning commis-
sion recommended that the
county retain its prohibi-
tion on churches and other
religious buildings in the
Metolius wildlife zone.
The Deschutes County
Commission will deliberate
on the issue at a date yet to be
determined.
“ We ’ r e r e c o g n i z i n g
through the amendment pro-
cess that a lot of people are
affected by this,” Gutowsky
said.
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Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. © 2016 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.