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CapitalPress.com
April 27, 2018
Rural brewery aims for Oregon land use fix
Proposal could
be similar to
exemption for
wineries, cideries
Washington
farm groups
seek say in
environmental
lawsuit
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A rural Oregon brewery
remains operational despite
a major zoning problem but
hopes that altering land use
rules will offer a long-term
fix.
Earlier this year, the tast-
ing room at Agrarian Ales
near Eugene, Ore., was tem-
porarily shut down by Lane
County officials, partly be-
cause its activities aren’t al-
lowed in an “exclusive farm
use” zone.
County officials also
said the building wasn’t up
to code for public occupan-
cy, which Agrarian Ales has
provisionally rectified by
barring visitors from sitting
beneath a roof overhang
and instead steering them
toward picnic tables on the
property.
The zoning predicament
also has a makeshift solu-
tion — while the brewery
applies for a special use per-
mit to run the tasting room,
the county isn’t penalizing
it for land use violations in
the meantime.
“Lane County, on the
face of it, says it’s interest-
ed in seeing this business
continue,” said Stephen
Harrell, the company’s farm
manager.
To comply with building
codes, the company is rais-
ing money through an on-
line “Kickstarter” campaign
to build a new tasting room
equipped with fire suppres-
sion sprinklers, lighted exit
signs and other elements.
On the land use front,
Agrarian Ales wants to
carve out an exemption for
small breweries in Oregon’s
statewide land use law, pro-
viding them with similar
flexibility as wineries and
cideries on farmland.
Under a proposed re-
vision to Oregon statutes,
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Stephen Harrell, farm manager at Agrarian Ales, enjoys some of the company’s beer at its facility north of Eugene, Ore. The company
hopes that changes to Oregon’s land use laws will provide a long-term fix for its zoning problem.
brewpubs could be sited in
“exclusive farm use” zones
if they annually generate
fewer than 50,000 gallons
of beer, with at least half the
hops or grains grown within
10 miles of the property.
That proposal was float-
ed late during the 2018 leg-
islative session and didn’t
gain traction, but Harrell is
hopeful a similar idea will
prove more successful next
year.
Limiting the size of
brewpubs on farmland
could alleviate concerns
about large commercial op-
erations, he said.
“You couldn’t run the
Sierra Nevada Brewery on
EFU land,” Harrell said,
referring to a well-known
craft brewery with wide-
spread distribution.
Agrarian Ales already
grows all the hops used in
its beer and is well under
the annual production cap
proposed earlier this year.
However, even wineries
and cideries still face some
ambiguities in land use law,
such as the ability to serve
food, Harrell said.
“It’s subjective,” he said.
“It’s not an objective set of
standards,” he said.
Most wineries cannot
house full restaurants under
land use rules, but the Or-
egon Liquor Control Com-
mission requires food to be
served at drinking establish-
ments, he said.
“You’re looking at two
regulatory bodies that os-
tensibly are conflicting,”
Harrell said.
State Sen. Lee Beyer,
D-Springfield, said he has
commitments from agri-
cultural and conservation
groups to discuss the issue
and believes it’s “realistic” a
change can be made in 2019.
“I would assume the big-
gest objects would be that
we keep the size of these
relatively small and tied to
farm uses onsite,” he said.
Similar agritourism ac-
tivities on farmland have
spurred the growth of Ore-
gon’s wine industry, Beyer
said. “You can’t develop a
wine industry if you don’t
have tasting rooms.”
1,000 Friends of Oregon,
a farmland conservation
group, is “definitely open
to conversations” about an
exemption for brewery agri-
tourism “with the appropri-
ate sideboards,” said Meriel
Darzen, its staff attorney.
The details will be crit-
ical, since a brewpub oper-
ating until midnight every
night of the week, for exam-
ple, may create traffic or oth-
er problems for neighboring
farmers, she said.
“Depending on the scale,
you’re talking about some-
thing that can have signifi-
cant impacts on surrounding
farm uses,” Darzen said.
California starts picking
light cherry crop
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
California is starting its
harvest of sweet cherries,
which are expected to yield
58 percent less than last
year’s record crop.
Lack of sufficient win-
ter chill, freeze damage a
month ago and poor pol-
lination weather have ad-
versely affected all growing
regions except for Patterson
area southwest of Stockton,
said Mike Jameson, director
of sales and marketing at
Morada Produce in Linden.
The crop will likely be
4 million, 18-pound boxes,
down from last year’s 9.6
million boxes, he said.
In 2017, good weather
helped produce the high-
est volume, quality, prices
and sales in recent memory,
Chris Zanobini, executive
director of the California
Cherry Advisory Board in
Sacramento, has said.
Last year’s crop aver-
aged around $55 per box
wholesale because of high
quality and limited compe-
tition worldwide, Jameson
said.
“We have a window
when we’re first out the
gate, ahead of Washington,
and have no real competi-
tion,” he said.
Picking began April 20
with a few Brooks variety
ROP-13-5-3/HOU
cherries in Arvin near Ba-
kersfield, Jameson said.
Early fruit sells at more
than $100 per box, he said.
Harvest will pick up
speed April 30 but with no
real volume until May 8 or
10, he said.
Brooks, Tulare and Cor-
al varieties will peak May
10-20. Bing will start May
22 in Stockton, Lodi and
Linden and peak May 27 to
June 8, Jameson said.
“The whole crop is later
this year by a few days,” he
said.
Washington
cherry
growers are always inter-
ested in California’s sales
and hope for little overlap
with Washington’s crop,
which normally starts
about June 8.
California lost 3 million
boxes of cherries to rain to
finish at 5.11 million box-
es in 2016 and hit a low of
2.67 million boxes in 2014
due to the lack of winter
chill and poor fruit set.
Harvest starts in the
southern district, which in-
cludes Arvin, Bakersfield
and Maricopa. Harvest
spreads north to the middle
district of Fresno, Reedley
and Madera.
Next is the north with
Stockton, Morada, Linden
and Lodi. It finishes in the
coastal district of Hollister
and Gilroy.
Rebuffed once, two Wash-
ington farm groups are again
pleading to have a voice in
an environmental organiza-
tion’s lawsuit that alleges
federal and state regulators
aren’t protecting waterways
from agriculture.
In what would be an un-
usual alliance, the Wash-
ington Farm Bureau and
Washington Cattlemen’s As-
sociation want to jump in on
the side of the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency and
state Department of Ecology.
They’re asking the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals to overrule Western
Washington District Judge
John Coughenour, who de-
cided last month that the
farm groups could not help
the government defend it-
self. Coughenour said that
Ecology has the same inter-
ests as farmers and that it’s
expertise on agricultural
runoff was “likely superior.”
“We obviously think the
court erred on this,” Farm
Bureau associate director of
government relations Evan
Sheffels said Tuesday. “We
think our producers know
their best interests, and we
think they are often different
than those of state and feder-
al agencies.”
The suit, filed by North-
west Environmental Ad-
vocates in 2016, claims
the EPA has been wrong to
approve pollution-control
plans submitted by Ecology.
The plans apply to logging
and urban stormwater, as
well as farming.
The Portland-based or-
ganization argues that the
plans are ineffective and
that the federal government
should withhold funds for
clean-water projects. Wash-
ington received a total of
$5.6 million in the current
fiscal year.
As a condition to restoring
the money, Ecology should
implement “best-manage-
ment practices” for agricul-
ture, the lawsuit suit argues.
The suit also alleges riparian
buffers on farms are inade-
quate to protect water.
Ecology recently con-
vened a workgroup to devel-
op voluntary water-protection
guidelines for agriculture.
Northwest Environmental
Advocates Executive Direc-
tor Nina Bell said Tuesday
that the lawsuit seeks to
have Ecology implement
measures on the ground, not
on paper.
“Ecology
developing
purely voluntary BMPs does
not resolve anything we’ve
raised in the litigation,” she
said. “Our goal in this law-
suit is to not just take money
away from the Department
of Ecology. Our goal is to
have a real rather than a fic-
titious program.”
Ecology and EPA have
defended the pollution-con-
trol plans, though Ecology
said in a recent court filing
that it “admits that riparian
buffers on some agricultural
lands are inadequate to fully
protect water quality.”
Sheffels said that illus-
trates the Farm Bureau’s
concern that the lawsuit
could lead to a settlement
unsuitable for farming. The
farms groups say they dis-
agree with agencies on the
extent of buffers needed to
protect water quality.
“We want to make sure
we don’t have a solution that
hurts our interests when we
should have had a seat at the
table,” Sheffels said.
LEGAL
LEGAL
NOTICE OF TALL FESCUE COMISSION BUDGET HEARING
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held pursuant
to ORS 576.416 (5), on Thursday, May 24, 2018, at 6:00 p.m., at the
Cascade Grill Restaurant, 110 Opal St. NE, Albany, Oregon, upon
a proposed budget for operation of the Oregon Tall Fescue
Commission during the fiscal year July 1, 2018 through June 30,
2019. At this hearing any producer of Oregon-grown Tall Fescue
seed has a right to be heard with respect to the proposed
budget, a copy of which is available for public inspection, under
reasonable circumstances, in the office of each County Extension
Agent in Oregon. For further information, contact the Tall
Fescue Commission business office, P.O. Box 3366, Salem, Oregon
97302, telephone 503-364-2944. The meeting location is
accessible to persons with disabilities. Please make any requests
for an interpreter for the hearing impaired or for other
accommodations for persons with disabilities at least 48 hours
before the meeting by contacting the Commission office at 503-
364-2944.
17-1/999
CHERRY AVENUE
STORAGE
2680 Cherry Ave. NE
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 399-7454
AUCTION
SAT., MAY 5 TH • 10 A.M.
Unit AS-26: Cheyenne Franklin
Unit 109:
Lonnie & Michelle
Thomas
Unit 186-193: Juanita Thompson
Cherry Avenue Storage
reserves the right to
refuse any and all bids
legal-16-2-3/999