WASTE NOT OF YAMHILL CTY. v. Yamhill County

246 P.3d 493, 240 Or. App. 285
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 29, 2010
Docket2010002 A146170
StatusPublished

This text of 246 P.3d 493 (WASTE NOT OF YAMHILL CTY. v. Yamhill 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
WASTE NOT OF YAMHILL CTY. v. Yamhill County, 246 P.3d 493, 240 Or. App. 285 (Or. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

246 P.3d 493 (2010)
240 Or. App. 285

WASTE NOT OF YAMHILL COUNTY, Respondent,
v.
YAMHILL COUNTY; and Riverbend Landfill Company, Inc., Petitioners.

2010002; A146170.

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted October 6, 2010.
Decided December 29, 2010.

*494 Tommy A. Brooks, Portland, argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the brief were James E. Benedict and Cable Huston Benedict Haagensen & Lloyd LLP, and Rick Sanai, Senior Assistant County Counsel, Yamhill County.

William K. Kabeiseman, Portland, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Garvey Schubert Barer.

Before LANDAU, Presiding Judge, and ORTEGA, Judge, and SERCOMBE, Judge.

SERCOMBE, J.

This case concerns whether an opinion and order of the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) is unlawful in substance. Petitioner Waste Not of Yamhill County and others appealed a Yamhill County land use decision to LUBA. The county land use decision had approved comprehensive plan and zoning changes, a floodplain development permit, and a site plan for a landfill expansion. Petitioner contended, among other things, that the county erred in taking a variance to an approval standard, an "exception" to a statewide planning goal, as part of the plan and zoning changes. Petitioner argued that the proposed landfill use was consistent with the statewide planning goal and that the exception was inappropriate. LUBA agreed and reversed the county approval. Waste Not of Yamhill County v. Yamhill County, ___ Or. LUBA ___ (2010). On review, respondents below, Yamhill County and Riverbend Landfill Company, Inc. (Riverbend), the landfill operator, contend that LUBA erred and that the exception was necessary in order to approve the plan and zone changes for the expansion land. We conclude that LUBA did not err in evaluating the arguments presented to it on the necessity for an exception and, accordingly, affirm.

In order to understand the history of the case and the parties' contentions about the sufficiency of the county's exception, we first describe the exception process. As provided by ORS 197.175, counties and cities are obliged to prepare land use comprehensive plans that are consistent with statewide planning goals adopted by the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC).[1]*495 Some of those goals require plans to restrict the use or development of different types of resource lands, e.g., Goal 3 (Agricultural Lands), OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX(3), and Goal 4 (Forest Lands), OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX(4). When a city or county wishes to adopt a property-specific plan provision that is inconsistent with a goal requirement, it approves an exception to that goal requirement as part of the comprehensive plan. ORS 197.732(1)(b) and Goal 2, Part II, define an "exception" as

"a comprehensive plan provision, including an amendment to an acknowledged comprehensive plan, that:
"(A) Is applicable to specific properties or situations and does not establish a planning or zoning policy of general applicability;
"(B) Does not comply with some or all goal requirements applicable to the subject properties or situations; and
"(C) Complies with standards under subsection (2) of this section."

ORS 197.732(2) then describes three types of exceptions: for physically developed land that is not available for the goal use; for land that is "irrevocably committed" to a nongoal use; and for land needed for a use not allowed by a goal policy. The latter type of exception, a "reasons" or "need" exception is allowed by ORS 197.732(2)(c):

"A local government may adopt an exception to a goal if:
"* * * * *
"(c) The following standards are met:
"(A) Reasons justify why the state policy embodied in the applicable goals should not apply;
"(B) Areas that do not require a new exception cannot reasonably accommodate the use;
"(C) The long term environmental, economic, social and energy consequences resulting from the use at the proposed site with measures designed to reduce adverse impacts are not significantly more adverse than would typically result from the same proposal being located in areas requiring a goal exception other than the proposed site; and
"(D) The proposed uses are compatible with other adjacent uses or will be so rendered through measures designed to reduce adverse impacts."

This case involves a "reasons" exception to the requirements of Goal 3. That goal states that its aim is to "preserve and maintain agricultural lands" and provides that

"[c]ounties may authorize farm uses and those nonfarm uses defined by commission rule that will not have significant adverse effects on accepted farm or forest practices."

ORS 215.213 (for counties that have adopted marginal lands provisions) and ORS 215.283 (for other counties), in turn, set out allowed and conditional uses for areas zoned for exclusive farm uses. Those statutes have been replicated for the most part in an LCDC rule, OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX. ORS 215.213(2)(j) and ORS 215.283(2)(k) allow as a conditional use in an exclusive farm use zone:

"A site for the disposal of solid waste approved by the governing body of a city or county or both and for which a permit has been granted under ORS 459.245 by the Department of Environmental Quality together with equipment, facilities or buildings necessary for its operation."

The implementing rule for that use, OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX, however, restricts a solid waste disposal facility use on agricultural land in more specific ways. It allows the use described by ORS 215.213(2)(j) and ORS 215.283(2)(k) on "high-value farmland" only for maintenance, enhancement, or expansion of an "[e]xisting facilit[y] wholly within a farm use zone" and on other agricultural land if standards requiring minimal effects on farm and forest practices are met. OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX(8)(a) defines "high-value farmland" by soil productivity characteristics. See Lane County v. LCDC, 325 Or. 569, 582-83, 942 P.2d 278

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Related

Lane County v. Land Conservation & Development Commission
942 P.2d 278 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1997)
Waste Not of Yamhill County v. Yamhill County
246 P.3d 493 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Estremado v. Jackson County
241 P.3d 748 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Barnes v. City of Hillsboro
243 P.3d 139 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Department of Land Conservation & Development v. Yamhill County
53 P.3d 462 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2002)
Friends of the Metolius v. Jefferson County
213 P.3d 1259 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2009)
VanSpeybroeck v. Tillamook County
191 P.3d 712 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2008)
Just v. City of Lebanon
88 P.3d 936 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
246 P.3d 493, 240 Or. App. 285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waste-not-of-yamhill-cty-v-yamhill-county-orctapp-2010.