OREGON PIPELINE HEARING TO PROCEED DESPITE LEGAL MOTION

The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners will proceed with a public hearing Wednesday, March 9 on its reconsideration of the Oregon Pipeline LLC land-use application, despite a legal motion filed last week by the company.

Oregon Pipeline filed a “writ of mandamus” motion Friday, March 4 in Clatsop County Circuit Court seeking immediate approval of the application. The motion contends the county has missed the legal deadline for taking final action on its consolidated application for the construction of 41 miles of natural gas pipeline serving the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Warrenton.

Oregon law requires jurisdictions to take final action on land use applications no more than 150 days after the application is deemed complete. If the deadline is missed, the applicant can request, through a mandamus motion, to have the local circuit court order that the application be approved.

In November 2010 the board of commissioners approved the application. That decision was appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals by project opponents. On Jan. 12, 2011, the board, with three new commissioners, voted to file a notice of withdrawal of the November decision with LUBA. Jurisdictions have the authority to withdraw land-use decisions, for the purpose of reconsideration, prior to completing and filing the record of the process with LUBA. The board set a limited public hearing for March 9 to reconsider the application.

Oregon Pipeline contends that the deadline for final approval of its application, following a number of extensions, was Jan. 24, 2011, and the board, by moving to reconsider the approval originally granted to the company in November, has missed that deadline.

Under the motion, Clatsop County must either grant the approval or respond in court on March 18.

Despite the filing, the board of commissioners will proceed with the March 9 public hearing to reconsider the application. The hearing, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Judge Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria, will take testimony only from Oregon Pipeline and project opponent Columbia Riverkeeper.