Progress made on county plan

Amending the first two chapters were the first two tasks of a 19-task state-approved work plan for updating the county’s comprehensive plan, a state-required document detailing the county’s long-range vision for land use.

The plan is intended to serve as a policy and implementation blueprint for the planning department and county commission in land use decisions.

The first round of amendments were presented to the Wasco County Planning Commission on April 3 voted unanimously to recommend the adoption of the two amended chapters to the BOCC.

Updates to Chapter Two, which is on land use planning, include clarifying what data is used in decision making and how to access information, removing overly-ambitious plan evaluation timelines, and requiring better coordination between the various departments involved with land use decision making.

Updates to Chapter One, which details the county’s Citizen Involvement Program, include adding a historical information section, reworded the citizen involvement goal and an excerpt of the statewide planning goal.

Redundant policies and implementations will be consolidated and references to past practices that are no longer in use, such as posting physical signs county-wide for meetings, will also be removed.

This example sparked a discussion among the commissioners at their May 2 meeting about notification practices in Wasco County and the Citizen Involvement Program, which defines how the county engages the public.

Commissioner Scott Hege said that doing more than the minimum notification requirement “would alleviate a lot of people’s problems.”

Planning director Angie Brewer responded that the department’s goal with these changes is to make the comprehensive plan consistent with current practice, not to change the department’s practices.

She added that there will be the chance for other amendments later and that the official ordinance won’t be done until the end of the process, as the planning department will have to respond to the requirements of landowners.

The department’s plan is to start with “softball” changes that are relatively obvious before moving on to more fundamental changes, said long-range planner Kelly Howsley-Glover at the May 2 meeting.

“This is an evolving process,” she said.

The department intends to update each work task related chapter to follow the same format: An overview of the goal and county policies, a statement of the goal and reference to statewide planning goals, any cross-references to other goals, policy statements, implementation statements for each policy, and a findings and reference section with any other relevant information.

An official Citizen Advisory Group got together for several work sessions in 2015 and 2016 to discuss reformatting the plan “for increased use, transparency and readability” and the proposed updates are based on their findings, the BOCC said in a written statement.

The Citizen Advisory Group established itself to represent Wasco County during the update process and to recommend changes to the planning department.

The group consists of members of the Wasco County Planning Commission, but with a separately appointed chair and vice chair in order to keep the two groups’ work separate. Members join on a volunteer basis and are approved by a review committee.

The group gets together whenever there’s a case for sweeping legislative amendments to any of the planning department’s plans.

An official charter was written up for the group at the start of the update process just to formalize the practice, Howsley-Glover said.

She said information on the group is readily available on Wasco 2040’s website, which also details ways for citizens to get involved in the update.

Though comprehensive plans are generally designed to be redone every 20 years, Wasco County’s current plan is 35 years old.

Some revisions have been done since its adoption in 1983, but it was determined that the plan is in need of a full revision, said a statement on Wasco 2040’s official website.

The BOCC authorized the planning department to pursue voluntary periodic review in October 2016, and the department officially began the update process when a final work plan was approved by the state in February 2018.

While most counties go through a simpler process called acknowledgment plan review to update their comprehensive plans, the planning department requested periodic review, a process that’s typically only required for urban jurisdictions, because periodic review offers additional “hand-holding from the state,” Howsley-Glover said. The state sets aside resources for the county to use throughout the update process and, in turn, puts rules and a three-year time limit in place.

Now that the BOCC has approved these first amendments, the planning department will submit notices of completion for tasks one and two to the state by May 31 to proceed with task three: updating policies to reflect current minimum lot sizes.

Task three is due to be completed by November 30. The next four work tasks are due March 31, 2019, and the work plan as a whole should be completed by June 30, 2020, with all updates finalized by August of that year.

The Citizen Advisory Group begins a four-stop roadshow this week to give presentations and hear feedback on topics related to the Wasco 2040 work plan.

While an earlier roadshow provided information on the big-picture plan, these upcoming roadshows will focus on specific issues related to the plan.

15-minute presentations will be given on land-use planning incentives, water conservation and development, and agri-tourism, with 20 minutes set aside for public comment after each.

“This is an opportunity for folks to really drill down on programs that are important to them, Howsley-Glover said.

The roadshow events will be 5:30-7:30 p.m., May 30 at Dufur City Hall, May 31 at Mosier Grange Hall, June 5 in the building two lecture hall of Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles, and June 7 at Legion Hall in Maupin.

More information on Wasco 2040, the roadshows and how to get involved is available at wasco2040.com.