Stop the Dump Coal. v. Yamhill Cnty.

435 P.3d 698, 364 Or. 432
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 28, 2019
DocketLUBA 2016026 (SC S064894)
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 435 P.3d 698 (Stop the Dump Coal. v. Yamhill Cnty.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stop the Dump Coal. v. Yamhill Cnty., 435 P.3d 698, 364 Or. 432 (Or. 2019).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

*700**434Intervenor-respondent Riverbend Landfill Co. seeks to expand its solid waste landfill in Yamhill County on land zoned for exclusive farm use (EFU). To obtain site design review and a floodplain development permit for the expansion, Riverbend had to meet what is sometimes known as the farm impacts test, set out in ORS 215.296. Subsection (1) of that statute precludes approval of a proposed nonfarm use when the use would "[f]orce a significant change" in accepted farm practices or "[s]ignificantly increase the cost" of those practices on surrounding agricultural lands. Subsection (2) provides that a permit applicant may meet the farm impacts test through the local government's imposition of conditions of approval.

Respondent Yamhill County has determined for a second time that, with conditions of approval, the landfill expansion will not create a significant change in accepted farm practices or significantly increase the cost of those practices on surrounding agricultural lands, thereby meeting the farm impacts test. But petitioners Stop the Dump Coalition, Willamette Valley Wineries Association, and Ramsey McPhillips and petitioner-intervenor Friends of Yamhill County (collectively, petitioners) contend that Riverbend's applications fail the farm impacts test, as it is correctly understood. In broad terms, the parties dispute what the farm impacts test measures and whether some of the conditions that the county imposed for approval are proper under ORS 215.296(2).

On review, petitioners take issue with both the latest order of the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) in Stop the Dump Coalition v. Yamhill County , 74 Or. LUBA 1 (2016) (SDC II ), and the decision of the Court of Appeals upholding that order in Stop the Dump Coalition v. Yamhill County , 284 Or. App. 470, 485, 391 P.3d 932 (2017) ( SDC III ). Petitioners challenge some of the county's conditions of approval, which LUBA and the Court of Appeals approved, and the Court of Appeals' articulation of how the county must evaluate impacts of the landfill expansion on farm practices and their costs.

**435This case requires us, for the first time, to interpret and apply the farm impacts test in ORS 215.296. Ultimately, we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the Court of Appeals and affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand the final opinion and order of the Land Use Board of Appeals.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A. The County's Reapproval of the Landfill Expansion

Riverbend owns and operates the Riverbend landfill sited on EFU-zoned land in Yamhill County. Stop the Dump Coalition v. Yamhill County , 72 Or. LUBA 341, 346 (2015) (SDC I ). The surrounding area contains EFU-zoned lands in various agricultural uses. Id . at 347. Because parts of its existing site are filling up, Riverbend sought to expand the landfill, including onto adjacent EFU-zoned land that it owns. Id . The expansion "would occupy land that qualifies as high-value farmland" and would "add 15 years of capacity to the landfill operation, which would otherwise reach full capacity in 2017." Id.

A solid waste disposal facility is allowed as one of the 27 nonfarm uses that may be permitted on any EFU-zoned land, if approved by the local governing authority. See ORS 215.283(2)(k). Accordingly, Riverbend submitted applications to the county for a site design review under Yamhill County Zoning Ordinance 1101 and a floodplain development permit under Zoning Ordinance 901. In approving Riverbend's permit applications in 2015, the county imposed numerous conditions of approval on Riverbend and determined that, with Riverbend's adherence to those conditions, the farm impacts test was satisfied.

The county's 2015 approval led participants in the proceedings to file an appeal to LUBA. In that first appeal, LUBA agreed with the challengers that the county had incorrectly determined that the landfill expansion complied with the farm impacts test in *701ORS 215.296(1). LUBA concluded that the county's approach to determining compliance was flawed, both as to some individual impacts on surrounding farms and as to whether the cumulative effect of individual impacts met the farm impacts test. LUBA noted **436that the county had not articulated its understanding of "significant," and LUBA suggested that, based on the word's ordinary meaning, "significant" should be understood as a sizeable or important influence or effect. See SDC I , 72 Or. LUBA at 359 n. 12 (identifying a dictionary definition for the word "significant" as "having or likely to have influence or effect" and one for the antonym "insignificant" as "of little size or importance").

LUBA directed the county, on remand, to reconsider evidence with respect to a variety of specific impacts, including (1) impacts of litter on the McPhillips farm, (2) impacts of nuisance birds on nearby farms, (3) impacts on pheasant-raising operations on the McPhillips farm, and (4) odor and visual impacts of the landfill expansion, including on farm stands and direct farm sales on nearby farms. Id. at 361-62, 367-76. In addition, LUBA directed the county to determine "whether Riverbend has demonstrated that the cumulative impacts of the proposed use will not force a significant change in, or significantly increase the cost of, accepted farm practices on surrounding lands." Id. at 377.

On remand, the county reopened the record and accepted additional evidence and arguments. SDC II , 74 Or. LUBA at 6. Petitioners and their members have interests in nearby agricultural land and opposed the county's reapproval of Riverbend's applications. Ramsey McPhillips, the individual petitioner, has a farm adjacent to and downwind of the landfill. Id. McPhillips has a hay operation and raises pheasants and other poultry on his farm. Id. at 6-7, 28.

In 2016, the county commissioners again approved Riverbend's applications for site design review and a floodplain development permit. Id. at 6.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
435 P.3d 698, 364 Or. 432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stop-the-dump-coal-v-yamhill-cnty-or-2019.