The Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners will again take up the consolidated land-use application
from Oregon Pipeline Company at a public hearing Oct. 9.
After a lengthy legal
dispute over jurisdictional issues, the county has been given the go-ahead by
the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) to resume its reconsideration of the
application, which seeks approval for construction of 41 miles of pipeline to
serve a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Warrenton.
The Oct. 9 public
hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Judge Guy Boyington Building, 857
Commercial St., Astoria, and will be continued to Oct. 23 if necessary. Oral
testimony will only be accepted at the hearing from the applicant, Oregon
Pipeline Company LLC, and Columbia Riverkeeper, a project opponent. The general
public, however, will be able to submit written comments to the board; those
comments may be mailed to Clatsop County Community Development Department, 800
Exchange St., Suite 100, Astoria OR 97103; faxed to (503) 338-3606; or emailed
to comdev@co.clatsop.or.us.
The deadline for
comment submission is 5 p.m. Sept. 25. Comments must address issues contained in
the existing record.
In March 2011 the
board of commissioners gave preliminary approval to findings of fact that denied
the consolidated application. Before the board could take final action on the
findings, the proceedings were put on hold as a result of a legal challenge to
the county’s jurisdiction filed by Oregon Pipeline that was finally resolved, in
the county’s favor, in March 2013.
On Aug. 29, LUBA
approved a motion from Clatsop County to resume the reconsideration process, and
set a 90-day deadline for final action.
Oregon Pipeline
originally submitted a land-use application seeking conditional use, review use
and geological hazard permits to the county in 2009. In November 2010 the board
of commissioners approved the application, but in January 2011 the board, with
three new members, voted to withdraw the November approval for
reconsideration.
Prior to the March
2011 reconsideration hearing, Oregon Pipeline filed a writ of mandamus motion in
Clatsop County Circuit Court, claiming that the board’s vote to withdraw the
November 2010 approval ruling was made after the state-mandated time limit for
land-use decisions, and that as a result the board did not have authority to
undo the approval decision. The legal challenge effectively put the county’s
reconsideration process on hold and prevented the board from taking final action
until the mandamus issue was settled.
The circuit court
denied Oregon Pipeline’s motion, a ruling that was upheld by the Oregon Court of
Appeals and denied review by the Oregon Supreme Court.
The Oct. 9 proceeding
will constitute a new hearing and will replace the March 9, 2011
proceeding.
All documents related
to the Oregon Pipeline application can be viewed in person at the Community
Development office, 800 Exchange St., Suite 100 in Astoria during normal
business hours, or can be viewed online at www.co.clatsop.or.us.
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