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About Columbia Gorge news. (The Dalles, OR) 2020-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2021)
Wednesday,May5,2021 Columbia Gorge News www.columbiagorgenews.com REZONING Public hearing scheduled Continued from page 1 and residential uses outright. According to the agenda memo, the applicant, Dean Enterprises, LLC., plans to apply for a four-lot short plat to create three 5-acre residential lots and one 65- acre lot off of Byrkett Road for residential construction. According to the memo, the larger lot may be further divided depending on market conditions, and a conser- vation easement of approx- imately 14.5 acres will be created to protect Bear Creek. Following a recommen- dation from the planning commission to approve the rezoning proposal, county commissioners held a dis- cussion before coming to the conclusion that further input is necessary, and deciding to continue the public hearing, scheduled for 6 p.m. on June 1, with options for virtual and in-person participation. Approval of the rezone would mean the greatest conversion of forest lands in the Trout Lake Valley in re- cent years; the applicant had received a rezone approval for 40 acres directly adjacent to the land currently under debate in 2006, which were later short-platted into seven lots. According to a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) document showing mitigated approval of the 80-acre rezone through the county planning department, the applicant installed under- ground power and wells to serve the seven lots at the time of the 2006 rezone. According to the SEPA doc- ument, the seven lots have been sold, and “owners are drawing up plans for housing and intend to build in the next one to three years." The applicant, according to the SEPA document, con- sidered the forest resources on the 80-acre parcel to be “of low density and of poorer quality than the timber to the west.” A “significant portion” of the area is covered by “scat- tered active Armillaria root rot disease pockets,” which is marked by significant tree mortality in the area, accord- ing to the SEPA document. “While clear cutting this 40 (acre lot) is an option, we conclude that a better use for this property would be to continue the development already begun to the south by creating (over time) five acre lots that are connected to Jennings Road by extending Byrkett Road,” the applicant wrote in the SEPA document. Commissioner Discussion Commissioner Jacob Anderson started the dis- cussion on the merits of the specific rezoning proposal on the commissioners’ desks. To begin, Anderson noted the merits of planning for resi- dential development in an area where the housing sup- ply is virtually non-existent. “In terms of community need, last I checked, there is nothing for sale in the Trout Lake Valley. Nothing,” Anderson said. “With that be- ing said, creating another lot is not going to alleviate any issues that were brought up.” Anderson argued that the parcel would be the “next logical place” to build in the area, based on his recol- lection of past Trout Lake Community Council discus- sions which cited the western area as a possible area for expansion. Commissioner Dan Christopher opposed the rezoning proposal based on two reasons. The first he cited was that the rezoning propos- al “could be considered a spot zone just because it is not in their current compre- hensive plan.” He also voiced opposition on the basis that there is no fire exit currently on the property. Associate Planner Lori Anderson confirmed in an email exchange that both the 1995 Trout Lake Comprehensive Plan, and the 2010 plan that was never approved, “would allow the General Rural zone in those (comprehensive) plan designations.” Anderson responded in agreement to Christopher’s concerns about fire safety, saying Yellow Brick Road was too small for fire exits. “I want fire data. I want fire egress, ingress ... as part of the start of the conversation,” said Christopher. Scott Richmond, a representative with Dean Enterprises, LLC., was allowed to speak directly to questions commissioners had on fire safety in the parcel. “It’s a very important ques- tion to us, I know it’s a very important question to the community,” Richmond said. Richmond said the com- pany has done a shaded fire break on Cheese Cave Road over a decade ago, and discussed updating that, but “we were told at the time of the planning commission hearings, that the issue of a fire exit was more of a short plat issue rather than a rezoning issue, which is why we haven’t addressed it yet at this point.” In the SEPA document, Dean Enterprises, LLC., also state their intention to com- plete a commercial thinning of the parcel, primarily in the southern 40 acres. Out of conversations with Trout Lake fire officials and representatives from Washington Department of Natural Resources, Richmond was ready to ad- dress the issue of fire safety, presenting to commissioners a couple different options for expansion of fire escape routes. Richmond said it is possi- ble to extend Byrkett Road as part of the development, and provide a link to Cheese Cave road, which would give an extra exit for people to escape a dangerous situation to the west. It may also be possible, Richmond said, to find some way to connect the parcel to Dean Road to provide fire exit in that area to the east. Richmond said the compa- ny intends to expand the pro- posals to provide additional fire egress at the time of the short plat process. Following input from Richmond, Commissioners made a unanimous decision to hold their own public hearing following board dis- cussion to gather more input. “Changing the rules mid-game” The Growth Management Act requires counties in Washington to maintain a comprehensive plan, which includes a land use element that sets the direction of fu- ture growth in a community. In Klickitat County, a comprehensive plan update for the Trout Lake area had been drafted in 2010, but was put on hold and never adopted, according to Deputy Planning Director Lori Anderson. Because of the hold, the plan has not been codified, so county commissioners are basing decisions in the area off of a plan adopted in 1995, a grievance which Commissioner Dave Sauter voiced in his report priming the discussion on the rezon- ing proposal. During Tuesday’s commis- sion meeting, Sauter called the situation “a huge problem that we’re going to have to fix, one way or another.” Sauter voiced his personal hesitancies on approving rezones, arguing that the county is being “forced into kind-of these one-offs where we’re trying to force ... what we believe to be the current view of planning in that com- munity based on really al- most anecdotal information.” With local planning efforts having been stopped by liti- gation in the past, such as a comprehensive plan update effort for the Husum-BZ Corner area that was stalled by a SEPA appeal, Sauter con- tended that commissioners are being put in a position to make decisions on a case-by- case basis. “To me it feels like you’re changing the rules mid- game,” Sauter said. 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