Thomas v. Wasco County

392 P.3d 741, 284 Or. App. 17
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 1, 2017
Docket1300193CC; A155158 (Control); 1300161CC; A155511
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 392 P.3d 741 (Thomas v. Wasco 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
Thomas v. Wasco County, 392 P.3d 741, 284 Or. App. 17 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

HADLOCK, C. J.

Petitioner Kenneth Thomas appeals from judgments of the circuit court dismissing his petition for a writ of review and his second amended complaint seeking a declaratory judgment.1 The proceedings arise out of petitioner’s objections to an order of the Wasco County Board of Commissioners granting a permit for an “outdoor mass gathering” to petitioner’s neighbor. ORS 433.750 (2013) (authorizing a county governing body to “issue a permit upon application” for an outdoor mass gathering).2 The issues on appeal relate to the interplay of Oregon’s land use laws and those governing outdoor mass gatherings. For the reasons explained in this opinion, we conclude that the circuit court did correctly enter judgment for respondents on the writ of review petition but that it erred in dismissing the second claim of petitioner’s second amended complaint in the declaratory judgment action. We therefore reverse and remand the judgment dismissing the declaratory judgment action and otherwise affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Issuance of the Outdoor-Mass-Gathering Permit

The relevant facts and chronology are undisputed. Respondent Wolf Run Ranch, LLC (Wolf Run) owns 254 acres in Wasco County. The subject property is partially forested and is zoned for forest use; within the parcel is a field of approximately 92 acres. The property also includes a single-family dwelling, several small barns, garages and other outbuildings, and a driveway to the dwelling. Petitioner owns timbered land adjacent to the subject property.

In March 2013, respondent Moonshine Events, LLC, doing business as “What the Festival” (Moonshine), filed an application with the county seeking a permit for an outdoor [20]*20mass gathering on Wolf Run, with an anticipated festival attendance of 4,000 to 5,000 attendees and 600 to 800 staff. The event was to be held from July 25 to 28, 2013. The permit application included a site plan showing proposed development to the property to accommodate the festival, including additional and expanded roads, several parking areas, an area to be leveled by “cut and fill” for use as a splash pool, and other water storage areas. A proposed new roadway would provide primary access to the festival.

ORS 433.735(1) defines an “outdoor mass gathering” as

“an actual or reasonably anticipated assembly of more than 3,000 persons which continues or can reasonably be expected to continue for more than 24 consecutive hours but less than 120 hours within any three-month period and which is held primarily in open spaces and not in any permanent structure.”

Under ORS 433.745(1), a person who seeks to “hold, conduct, advertise or otherwise promote” an outdoor mass gathering may do so by permit.3 ORS 433.745(2) states that a permit for an outdoor mass gathering “does not entitle the organizer to make any permanent physical alterations to or on the real property.”4

[21]*21The procedures for seeking a permit for an outdoor mass gathering are set forth in ORS 433.750(1), which provides that the governing body of a county shall issue a permit

“when the organizer demonstrates compliance with or the ability to comply with the health and safety rules governing outdoor mass gatherings to be regulated according to the anticipated crowd and adopted by the Oregon Health Authority.”

A county must hold a hearing on an application for an outdoor mass gathering, publish notice of the hearing, and give notice to local law enforcement, fire, and health officials. ORS 433.750(2) - (4). A county’s authorization of an outdoor mass gathering is not a land use decision. ORS 197.015(10)(d).5

The county held a public hearing on May 8, 2013. Witnesses described the development that would be necessary to hold the festival and to satisfy state health and safety standards, including the cutting of trees to accommodate the construction of a parking area, a ticket booth, and new access road; multiple vehicle-arrival lanes; a stream crossing for vehicles; and a culvert.6

Petitioner appeared at the hearing and contended that the proposed improvements would effect permanent alterations to the property that were not allowed without permits and that had not been approved under applicable land use statutes and ordinances. A county planner testified that the county did not intend to permit any sort of permanent infrastructure in conjunction with the outdoor-mass-gathering permit, and that the required road (which the parties do not dispute is a permanent improvement) was a “driveway” already allowed in conjunction with [22]*22the existing residential use.7 At the conclusion of the hearing on May 8, 2013, the Wasco County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved respondents’ application for a permit for an outdoor mass gathering on the subject property, and it issued an order approving that gathering, with 11 conditions. Moonshine undertook to improve the property as required by the county’s order.

B. Petitioner’s Challenges to the Permit and the Trial Court’s Rulings

1. Petitioner’s LUBA challenge

Petitioner challenged the county’s order granting the outdoor-mass-gathering permit through various channels. One of those routes involved an appeal of the county’s order to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). Petitioner acknowledged that the county’s granting of the permit was not itself a land use decision subject to LUBA’s jurisdiction. See ORS 197.015(10)(d) (excluding from the definition of a “land use decision” the “authorization of an outdoor mass gathering as defined in ORS 433.735”). Nonetheless, petitioner argued, the county’s approval encompassed a separate land use decision to approve permanent alterations to the property, specifically an access road and a parking lot, that are expressly prohibited by ORS 433.745(2). LUBA dismissed petitioner’s appeal, explaining that “the county made only a single decision * * * which approves the [outdoor mass gathering], including the access road and the parking areas.” LUBA reasoned, further, that petitioner’s arguments that the county had erroneously approved permanent physical [23]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
392 P.3d 741, 284 Or. App. 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-wasco-county-orctapp-2017.