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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