Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition v. Lincoln County

992 P.2d 936, 164 Or. App. 426, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 2118
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 22, 1999
DocketLUBA No. 98-175; CA A106967
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 992 P.2d 936 (Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition v. Lincoln County) 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
Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition v. Lincoln County, 992 P.2d 936, 164 Or. App. 426, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 2118 (Or. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

DEITS, C. J.

Lincoln County (county) and petitioners Armes et al (petitioners) seek review of LUBA’s decision remanding the county’s vacation of a portion of County Road 804 that is located in its entirety in the City of Yachats (city). The respondents (respondents) other than 1000 Friends of Oregon (1000 Friends) cross-petition from LUBA’s decision. We reverse on both the petition and the cross-petition and remand to LUBA for further consideration.

We quote the facts from LUBA’s opinion:

“In 1890, Benton County platted what became Lincoln County Road 804, a 60-foot wide unimproved right-of-way running south along the beach from the City of Waldport to the Yachats River. Just north of the Yachats River, within the present City of Yachats, the platted 804 right-of-way left the beach and traversed a low, rocky bluff running south to the Yachats River. We follow the parties in referring to the relevant portion of the 804 right-of-way within the City of Yachats as South 804. South 804 was never improved or used extensively for transportation, although it continued to be shown on county maps, and was used to some extent as a footpath along the bluff from the 1890s into the 1970s.
“In 1953, the Ocean Crest Subdivision was platted north of the unincorporated community of Yachats, placing 30 lots between the bluff and a roadway shown on the plat as Ocean View Drive. The subdivision plat did not depict the South 804 right-of-way and overplatted the westward portion of the 30 lots within that right-of-way. The City of Yachats was incorporated in 1967, including Ocean Crest Subdivision. By the 1970s, most of the 30 lots adjoining the bluff were developed with dwellings, with many structures built wholly or partially within the South 804 right-of-way. Ocean View Drive was developed as a public street parallel to and east of the bluff and the South 804 right-of-way.
“In 1997, the county resurveyed the South 804 right-of-way, and found that the majority of South 804 is on top of and parallel to the bluff, but that due to erosion of the bluff, portions of the platted right-of-way lie west of and below the current bluff-line. In September 1997, several owners within the Ocean Crest Subdivision filed a petition with the [430]*430county to vacate South 804 from the northerly boundary of the Ocean Crest Subdivision to the ten-mile marker east of Highway 101. The county board of commissioners conducted proceedings, and determined to vacate the South 804 right-of-way from the northerly boundary of the subdivision to the First Street right-of-way. The county prepared findings to that effect. Pursuant to ORS 368.361(3), the county submitted its findings to the City of Yachats for its concurrence. On September 10,1998, the city adopted a resolution concurring with the county’s determination to vacate the relevant portion of South 804 and incorporating the county’s findings. On September 16, 1998, the county board of commissioners adopted its final decision vacating the South 804 right-of-way.” (Footnote omitted.)

Respondents appealed the decision and 1000 Friends intervened on respondents’ side. The county and petitioners moved to dismiss the appeal, asserting that the road vacation was not a “land use decision” subject to LUBA’s review. Respondents opposed the motion, contending, inter alia, that the county’s decision entailed the application of— and violated — Implementation Requirement 6 (IR 6) of Goal 17 (Coastal Shorelands), the city comprehensive plan policy C.6 (policy 6), and sections 3.090 and 3.100 of the city zoning ordinance (YZ0).1 Accordingly, respondents argued, the [431]*431county’s action was a “land use decision” under any or all of ORS 197.015(10)(a)(A)(i),(ii) and (iii).2 We emphasize that, if any of those provisions is applicable to the county’s decision, then it was a “land use decision” and LUBA had jurisdiction.

The LUBA majority resolved the jurisdictional question by concluding that “at least Goal 17 and IR 6 are applicable to the challenged decision.” (Emphasis added.) The county’s authority to vacate the road located inside the city stems from ORS 368.361(3), which provides that “a county governing body may vacate property that is under the jurisdiction of the county and that is entirely within the limits of a city if,” as occurred here, the “city, by resolution or order, concurs in the findings of the county governing body[.]” LUBA reasoned that, in carrying out that authority, the county was required to apply its own acknowledged land use legislation or, under ORS 197.646, directly apply any new or amended statute, goal or Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) rule that the county had not amended its own legislation to implement. Since Goal 17 and IR 6 were adopted in their present form in 1984 and had not been implemented in the county’s comprehensive plan or land use regulations, the LUBA majority concluded that IR 6 was directly applicable to this decision.

On the merits, the majority held that the county had misconstrued and failed to demonstrate compliance with IR 6. LUBA interpreted the provision to mean “that existing alternate access points [to coastal shorelands] in the vicinity of the vacated right-of-way that are not part of the ‘affected site’ cannot satisfy IR 6.” In so holding, LUBA rejected the [432]*432county’s and petitioners’ view that alternative access in the general vicinity was adequate to meet the IR 6 requirement of retaining access across the “affected site,” but it also disagreed with respondents’ thesis that “retaining access ‘across the affected site’ necessarily requires that access be retained within the burdened lots or within the vacated right-of-way itself.” Rather, LUBA concluded that, “at least where the vacated access is ‘along the ocean shore,’ ” the retained access across the “affected site” must “also be within coastal shore-lands,” and the extent of the coastal shorelands must be determined as a part of identifying the “affected site.” Consequently, the LUBA majority held that the county’s findings were deficient in that they did not identify the affected site or the extent of the coastal shorelands and insofar as they determined that the required access has been retained by reason of alternatives in the general vicinity.

The LUBA majority, therefore, remanded the county’s decision on the ground that it had not been shown to comply with IR 6. However, LUBA rejected respondents’ other assignments, including, inter alia, their contentions that the road vacation violated the city provisions cited earlier.3 Although the language of policy 6 is virtually identical to that of IR 6, LUBA held that the road vacation was not inconsistent with it, because:

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Bluebook (online)
992 P.2d 936, 164 Or. App. 426, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 2118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oregon-shores-conservation-coalition-v-lincoln-county-orctapp-1999.