Lane County’s recent redistricting fight will likely go to
the Court of Appeals rather than the Oregon Supreme Court,
according to plaintiffs’ attorney David Force, but, he says,
“either way it could be too late to get this issue to the
voters.”
Delaying the appeals process is the fact that Circuit
Court Judge Charles Carlson “did not sign the judgment
dismissing our petition for writ of mandamus until
sometime this past Friday, and as of this morning (Dec. 20)
he has not yet ‘entered’ the judgment in the Judgment
Register,” says Force. “No appeal can be filed until the
judgment has been entered.”
The plaintiffs are intent on blocking what they call
gerrymandered redistricting by the Tea Party majority on the
county Commission. Commissioners Rob Handy and Pete
Sorenson voted against the redistricting plan Oct. 26, but lost
to the conservative majority of Sid Leiken, Jay Bozievich
and Faye Stewart. A citizen group organized to put the
decision on the ballot, but the county administration and
elections division said redistricting is administrative, not
legislative, and therefore not subject to a public vote. The
citizen group sued Cheryl Betschart, the county clerk in
charge of elections, but Betchart’s decision to not allow the
petition was upheld by Judge Carlson Dec. 9.
MINING DESTROYS
SCENIC BUTTE
It’s a double-edged sword, says Dexter resident Arlen
Marcus. Lane County has issued a notice of violation to the
mine operators at Parvin Butte for mining without a site
review. But Marcus says rather than stopping the heavy
machinery, the devastation of the Dexter landmark has only
increased. Neighbors say the near daily destruction starts in
the morning and lasts until after dark at the butte surrounded
by homes and the rural community of Dexter.
The $330 per day fine is “what they’ve decided this is the
cost of doing business,” says land use attorney Dan Stotter
who represents the Parvin Butte neighbors fighting to stop
the mine. “There’s more profit in breaking the law than in
paying the fines in a cost-benefit analysis,” he says. Marcus
agrees. “It’s like a dime to them,” he says. The fines as of
Dec. 20 totaled $4,680.
Kim Metzler, who like Marcus is a member of the
steering committee for the effort to save Parvin Butte, says
machinery is now removing the top of the butte. Parvin
Butte neighbors have taken video and photos showing
machinery digging rock, moving it next to a rock crusher on
the site, and more recently, loading the rock into McDougal
Bros. trucks at the butte.
The notice was issued to ATR Land, LeeLynn and Wiley
Mt., which like Lost Creek Resources, the name on the
Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)
permit, are all companies under the aegis of Norman and
Melvin McDougal and Greg Demers. Demers and his
brother Jeffrey Demers are involved in the Willamette Water
Company (see news brief this issue).
The site was zoned for gravel mining but has been
dormant for at least 50 years, says Marcus. The mine
operators have a DOGAMI permit, but according to the
notice of violation they were notified twice that a “site
review application in conjunction with DOGAMI permit
20-164 was required to continue any mining activity on the
property.” The mine has appealed the notice. The appeal
8 DECEMBER 22, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
median wage.” All goals are set for completion by 2017.
Alex Cuyler, intergovernmental relations manager for
Lane County, says that Goshen is mostly zoned “rural
industrial” now, and that has limits for building sizes,
which would not meet the needs of those who would
develop industrial sites, “whether that be a campus type
industrial or a traditional manufacturing type industrial.”
He says, “This planning effort would ultimately result in an
urban industrial zone,” which would allow for larger
buildings.
The effort to change the zoning in small, rural Goshen
was already under way before the commissioners’ vote. Last
February the commissioners directed the Land Management
Division to initiate a process to seek an exception to Oregon
statewide planning requirements to allow “an urban level of
employment uses” to develop within Goshen. Presentations
at public hearings have featured images of industrial parks,
and maps show Goshen as changing from a largely rural
area to an industrial corridor.
Cuyler says Goshen “has great rail access, large blocks
of undeveloped land, a state highway immediately adjacent
to I-5, all positives.” But he adds, “Lacking is access to the
public sewer and water infrastructure, and the current
zoning.”
The water issue is a source of concern for many,
including for Lane County Planning Commissioner Dennis
Sandow. Goshen is home to Willamette Water Company, a
quasi-municipal water source that currently supplies water
to about 100 residential customers and 60 or so businesses
and industries in Goshen.
According to a December 2009 Water Utility Annual
Report, the corporation has two stockholders — Greg
Demers and Melvin McDougal. Jeff Demers is the director
of operations.
WWC has a small water right on the McKenzie River of
4 cubic feet per second (cfs) right now, but it wants to
WRONG GOAL
FOR GOSHEN?
A recent county vote aimed at jobs is raising concerns it
also facilitates a water grab. As part of a goal-setting agenda
the Lane County Board of Commissioners unanimously
voted Dec. 7 on a strategic plan for the next five years. The
plan targets property crime, fetal/infant mortality and
helping rural businesses. The plan also calls for transforming
“existing industrial land in Goshen to support development
resulting in jobs that pay no less than 150 percent of the
written by attorney Larry Gildea argues that the mine does
not need a site review because it is 200 feet from exterior
boundaries and that Lane County cannot meet its burden of
proof.
A site review allows for the public to have a say on
mining operations before the trucks, noise and dust begin in
a community.
Lane County’s compliance officer, Jane Burgess, says
because an appeal was filed, the next step in the county’s
administrative enforcement process is to hold a hearing in
front of the Lane County hearings official.
Gary Lynch, assistant director at DOGAMI, says that the
DOGAMI permit rests on whether the land was zoned for
gravel mining and DOGAMI would have an issue only if
the land use approval was somehow denied. He says the
land use decisions made 30 or 40 years ago to allocate
resources were good at the time but “don’t measure up well
today. Some of our opinions have changed.”
County Commissioner Rob Handy says the county’s
inability to stop the mining despite the community uproar is
“very disappointing.” He says, “If the fines are looked at as
the cost of doing business then there’s something wrong
with that picture.” According to Handy the commissioners
could have some discretion in the issue when it comes to the
greater public interest, but he doubts the current board
majority would choose to weigh in.
When asked about Parvin Butte, Faye Stewart, the
commissioner who represents Dexter, referred the
question to county legal counsel. Assistant County
Counsel Marc Kardell says the county is attempting to
schedule a hearing for Jan. 5: “The hearing, should the
county be successful, would both levy fines and compel a
review process that the county believes is necessary in this
zone.” Fines, he says, are continuing to be assessed.
Stotter says if it can be proved that the mine operators are
not just moving rock around on the site, but engaging in
commercial activity, the fines can increase to three times as
much. He says it was “a crucial turning point in that Lane
County has gone on record that there is a violation of law.”
Stotter adds that it is rare in his 20 years of practice to see
Lane County issuing stop letters and pointing at a mining
operation and saying they are violating the law.
“It’s even more rare that the mining company ignores it,”
he says.
According to Stotter one action the neighbors could take
is to file a civil suit against the mine.
Stotter says that the mine operators “mistakenly think
that my clients, the neighbors, will give up, based on
seeing Parvin Butte cut down and destroyed. I think they
will see the opposite is true.”
— Camilla Mortensen
PHOTO BY JOHN BAUGUESS
REDISTRICTING
BOUND FOR
APPEALS COURT?
Plaintiff Duncan Rhodes of the Whiteaker Community
Council says he is getting a transcript made of the audio file
of Carlson’s Dec. 7 hearing on the case in order to create a
written record necessary for the filing.
“I don’t know if the court could reset the clock,” says
Rhodes. “It does not seem to be covered in the regulations/
law. This means that the county has effectively deprived the
voters of any input except in an election. It seems to me that
if this ruling stands it means that the county could do
whatever it pleases, and refuse to issue the required
paperwork for any referendum, thus disenfranchising us all.”
“I agree with Duncan that the consequences of this case
are far-reaching,” says Force. “In effect, a majority of
commissioners can now prevent referendums on all county
legislation.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Dec. 9 that the
U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a complex case
involving gerrymandered redistricting in Texas that
reportedly benefits Democrats and Latino voters. The federal
Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in
redistricting, but partisan redistricting has been upheld in the
courts.
— Ted Taylor
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