Oregonians In Action
Legal Center
P.O. Box 230637 Tigard OR 97281 (503) 620-0258
Legal Center



OIA-Legal Center steps in to defend Crook County decision

In an odd twist, the Oregonians In Action Legal Center appealed a decision of the Crook County Commissioners which
overturned an earlier county decision.

The strange saga began nearly a decade ago, when the county began an effort to rezone a number of parcels in the Powell Butte area. The vast majority of the land in the area is zoned for exclusive farm use, including thousands of acres that do not have water rights, and which cannot be used for any agricultural purpose, including grazing.

In 1998, after holding years of public hearings and spending thousands of dollars of public funds for studies, the County finally
rezoned nearly 10,000 acres into non-resource and rural residential zones. This should have been the end of the case, but it
wasn’t, because the County’s decision was immediately appealed by the Department of Land Conservation and Development
and a group of anti-landowner extremists in the area.

After the appeal was filed, the county agreed to enter into mediation to try and resolve the case. As a result of the mediation, an agreement was reached between the county, the DLCD, and the anti-landowner group.

Unfortunately, the mediated settlement was a disaster for most of the landowners in the area. "Essentially, the county refused to
defend its 1998 decision," said Dave Hunnicutt, Director of Legal Affairs for the Legal Center. "Out of the original 10,000 acres that they started with, the county agreed to put 6,700 acres back into exclusive farm use zones. If the county didn’t intend to support their 1998 decision, then why did they make it in the first place?"

But that’s not the worst of it. Not only did the county remove 67% of the land that they had just rezoned, but they also agreed
to amend their comprehensive plan to make sure that the landowners of those 6,700 acres would never be able to rezone their
land, even if they could demonstrate that it wasn’t agricultural land under state law.

"It’s really a bad joke," said Hunnicutt. "Not only did the county refuse to defend its 1998 decision, they actually agreed to
make it impossible for most of the landowners in the Powell Butte area to ever get their land rezoned. These people would have been better off if the County would have never tried to rezone their land in the first place."

The Legal Center is representing a number of landowners who own land in the 6,700 acres which the county put back into EFU zoning. "Basically, we are defending the County’s 1998 decision," said Hunnicutt. "If the County isn’t going to defend its own decisions, we’ll do it for them. What is ironic is that rather than thanking us for helping them, the County is now actively fighting our appeal."