THE GORGE — Good news for victims of the Rowena and Burdoin fires: the Secretary of Agriculture has signed off on changes the Gorge Commission made to the Management Plan for the National Scenic Area, which will make rebuilding easier.
Though the secretary has the ultimate responsibility for concurring with the changes, in practice, the decision has been delegated through the Chief of the Forest Service to the Regional Forester for Region 6, who supervises Oregon and Washington forests and grasslands.
Current Region 6 Forester, Jacqueline Buchanan, transmitted the letter of approval to Gorge Commission Executive Director Krystyna Wolniakowski on Feb. 24. It concludes:
“As a result of our review of the Amendment, I concur with the Columbia River Gorge Commission that the Amendment is consistent with the Act. The Amendment is consistent with the purposes of the Act and with the standards of Section 6(d) of the Act. The Amendment supports the recovery of the Gorge after disaster through the clarification of review standards and expanded allowances for reconstruction.”
People who have lost their homes will be able to put up a shed to store tools during rebuilding, will have 10 years to rebuild with expedited review instead of two, and will be able to park an RV on the property to stay in during the rebuilding process. Here’s how Gorge Commission attorney Jeff Litwak described the process on the Oregon side to a meeting of the Gorge Commission Rules Committee on Feb. 25.
“Wasco County is doing essentially a self-issued checklist type permit,” he said. “So you would go into Wasco County, get the form, fill out the form, and you would give it to the county planner. The county planner would essentially look at the form and then sign off on it. That is, in Oregon law, what we call a ministerial permit. It doesn’t require discretion and notice before you issue the decision. It doesn’t even require any notice after the decision.”
Since Klickitat County has never enacted its own version of the Management Plan into its ordinances, residents who live in the scenic area portion of the county get approvals directly from the Gorge Commission office in White Salmon.
Litwak said Washington residents won’t need to prepare a lengthy application to put an RV on their property, but there will be some minimal paperwork.
“If a landowner comes into the office and says, ‘I’d like to use an RV on my property,’ we would say, ‘That’s fine,’” he said. “That’s all the information that we need because we’ll know where their property is already. We’re going to issue them two documents — a letter and a site plan.
“The letter will essentially say this is approved. It will include all the property information and all the terms under which the temporary use would be permitted,” he continued. “It can’t require any grading. You have to stay out of buffer zones — those kinds of standards. We’re going to ask the landowner to give us a signature as an acknowledgment that they understand all the conditions of the temporary use, which would include taking it off when they no longer need it.”
The site plan will be prepared by commission staff and will show what parts of the parcel they can place a storage shed and an RV.
In the two previous Management Plan changes over the 40-year history of the scenic area, residents had to wait after the Secretary’s approval until their county enacted matching changes in their own scenic area ordinances. This one was approved with the understanding that the changes would be implemented in all the counties immediately, with local matching ordinances to follow.
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