Follmer v. County of Lane

480 P.2d 722, 5 Or. App. 185, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 806
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 11, 1971
Docket480 P2d 722; 486 P2d 1312
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 480 P.2d 722 (Follmer v. County of Lane) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Follmer v. County of Lane, 480 P.2d 722, 5 Or. App. 185, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 806 (Or. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinions

LANGTEY, J.

Plaintiffs are residential property owners resisting a reclassification of defendants Chase and [187]*187Whiteakers’ agricultural land to commercial zone. They sought and failed to get a declaratory judgment invalidating the reclassification in the circuit court, and appeal from that judgment.. The complicated facts were extensively produced and contested in several hearings before the Lane County Board of Commissioners, who legislated the zone change, and in the trial court. We have read 44 pounds of pleadings, briefs, transcripts and exhibits (excluding 15 pounds of maps), and from them relate the essential facts for our decision.

Defendants Chase and Whiteaker owned tracts of adjoining land (Chase much the larger tract) which were included in the original 1949 comprehensive zoning ordinance for Lane County as agricultural land and continued as such in the revised comprehensive plan adopted in 1959, apparently sometimes referred to as “The 1960 Comprehensive Plan.” The land was immediately north of the Willamette River, which flows westerly in the area. The boundaries of the city of Eugene extend to the south bank of the river. The city, which let the county know it opposed the zone change, has annexed much other property north of the river, and it is probable that sometime it will annex the subject property. Much of the property to the north is zoned single family residential, with the exception of property immediately across Country Club Road, which bounds subject property on the north, and which is generally zoned for professional offices and apartments. However, immediately across this road to the northeast is the Eugene Country Club parking lot, restaurant and part of the golf course. Several acres of nonconforming use land, consisting of a large logging truck storage and repair yard, also lie immediately across the road to the north.

[188]*188As the area north, east, and west of the subject property developed, and its population spectacularly increased (most of it after the original comprehensive zoning), better access became necessary. During the late 1960’s Interstate 105 freeway was built along the north side of the river, joining new Delta freeway a short distance downstream from subject property at a point where a new bridge (Jefferson Street) was constructed and opened in 1968. Before Interstate 105 was constructed, a substantial part of the acreage belonging to the owners of the subject property was condemned for the project. This cut their property off from the river, which had provided irrigation water. A publicly-owned green strip about 4500 feet long and averaging less than 200 feet wide, most of it formerly defendants’ land, was left along the river. The remaining property belonging to the Chases and Whiteakers is a solid area consisting of 22 acres about 2500 feet long and 500 feet wide, tapering at each end, except that the westerly end abuts a separately-owned and partially-improved 500 feet, zoned multiple family residential district.

The subject property is bounded by freeway I 105 to the south, and to the north by Country Club Road, which is planned to become a four-lane arterial street, and by freeway, and highway and bridge interchanges at the tapered ends easterly and westerly. The property beyond, easterly and westerly, is devoted exclusively to extensive commercial enterprises. These commercial areas are about 6000 feet apart. The shortest distance between them is composed of 2500 feet of the subject property, 500 feet of multiple family residential property, and about 3000 feet of freeways and highway interchanges. The Ferry Street Bridge is about 1000 feet from the east end of subject prop[189]*189erty and the Jefferson Street Bridge is about 1750 feet from the west end. The last condemnation taking from the subject property was 1.15 acres for access to another proposed highway and bridge, “Route F.”

The Lane County Planning Commission attempted to change the comprehensive plan for this whole area on April 11, 1967, and included was a change to commercial zone for the subject property. The trial court held this action was invalid because of failure to give public notice as required by ORS 215.060. Defendants cross-appeal this decision.

Defendant Kendall Ford, which lost its quarters in Eugene by fire, is a regional agency for Ford Motor Company. It has a contract to buy the subject property and proposes to build thereon a large vehicle sales agency and service complex. It filed an application to change the zone to commercial on January 13, 1967. The application was rejected by the Board of County Commissioners on May 17, 1967, by a 2-to-l vote, after the Planning Commission had favorably acted upon the application. A second application was filed November 12, 1968, for commercial use zone (C-3X), as to lots constituting 17 acres, and for a residential-professional zone (RP-X) as to lots constituting five acres. After another favorable recommendation from the Planning Commission, the Board allowed this application in Ordinance No. 308 by a 2-to-l vote. The latter action is the principal subject of this appeal.

Plaintiffs’ principal contentions are (1) that the latter application, initially filed with and approved by the Planning Commission, was not accompanied by an affidavit alleging “material and different circumstances” from the first application, as required by [190]*190Lane County Zoning Ordinance No. 4; (2) that the Board did not give legal notice required by ORS 215.223 (1) of its meetings to consider the application, and (3) that the action of the Board which followed the approval of the Planning Commission was arbitrary and illegal.

The closest any of the plaintiffs’ property is to the subject property is about one-fourth of a mile. None of the adjacent property owners opposed the zone change, and most of them informed the commissioners they favored the change. The basis for joining the litigation for two of the plaintiffs, husband and wife, is that they live on property they own, situated well over a mile from the subject property. This plaintiff husband works for a person who is actually paying the costs of the litigation for all of the plaintiffs. He owns property located on another side of the city of Eugene which is zoned for, and which he would apparently like to sell for, the same purpose Kendall Ford proposed for the subject property.

The trial court concluded that Kendall Ford’s second application, filed November 12, 1968, was substantially different from the first one filed January 13,1967, and, therefore, no affidavit was required. Section XXni of Ordinance No. 4 provides that after an application for reclassification has been denied, more than six months must elapse before a new application “for such a reclassification” can be made, and then it must be accompanied by an affidavit “setting forth material and different circumstances existing which did not exist” before. The first application was to reclassify all 22 acres from agricultural use to commercial C-3 use, with no controls except those applicable to the C-3 commercial zone, generally. Any of many enumerated businesses would have been al[191]*191lowed under such a reclassification, and the entire land surface area could have been improved.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

George v. Town of Edenton
242 S.E.2d 877 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1978)
Bissell v. Board of County Commissioners
506 P.2d 499 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1973)
Fasano v. BOARD OF COUNTY COM'RS OF WASHINGTON
489 P.2d 693 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
480 P.2d 722, 5 Or. App. 185, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/follmer-v-county-of-lane-orctapp-1971.