Bald Hill Farm: Is the Land Use Code More Valuable Than the Community?
December 1, 2009 30 Comments
Community values will apparently have no place at the Bald Hill Farm land use hearing next Monday. All that matters is the land use code. Even when damaging to the community in a particular situation, the council is required by law to make a judgment based on what the land use code says.
Former Corvallis City Councilor Stewart Wershow honestly shared his experience regarding Land Use hearings. “Councilors and planning commissioners have to follow the code- that is the law. Land use cases have to be decided on what the law says and not what the majority thinks it should say. When the council doesn’t follow the law, the Land Use Board of Appeals steps in and reverses the decision. Often I had to vote for something I didn’t agree with. I did so because it meet the criteria set forth in the Land Development Code.”
Bald Hill Farms was recently ordered by the city to close two businesses they have been operating in for some time in Corvallis. At the root of this is an interpretation of land use code. When faced with some ambiguous development code, City staff decided to err on the side of closing these businesses. I think that is inconsistent with our community values.
Fortunately, in this situation, I think the code is clear. There is a provision in the code for this type of property that allows for “accessory use” which can include, but is not limited to a “retail outlet” on site. Anyone that has looked at Bald Hill Farms website or driven by or seen their property can tell easily that it is a farm meat store, not unlike, (in function) a fruit stand you might find adjacent to a local produce farm. The ProBark business has a nearly identical business function and presence on the site.
The Bald Hill Farm LLC, provides a great example of exactly how we want a business or developer to behave in our community- sustainable business models, with a long term financial commitment to bettering our community.
No-one benefits from the closing of Bald Hill Farm store in Corvallis. Looks like appropriate accessory use to me. I can’t make the meeting Dec 7, so I sent a letter to my city council rep. Thats the next best action. Did you?
Now sign up to be on the Corvallis planning commission and help untangle the rules and put some good sense back into the code…we need good people on Corvallis commissions, they have a lot more power than you might think.
Chris: Philosophically-speaking, the Land Use Code is the community. It does reflect community values. It came to be via public process, with lots of input. It was before my time, but I believe Corvallis’ current Land Use Code also underwent numerous challenges at the state appeal level. Further, there is built into state law a timetable for revisiting local code, because (a) community values change and (b) community’s often don’t like what they find themselves stuck in because of the law of unintended consequences.
As you noted, the City staff made an interpretation of the Land Use Code, and acted accordingly. The City Council may interpret the code differently, and act accordingly. Someone may disagree with that action, and appeal. That process of appealing can go on to the highest court in the land. Another avenue of righting wrongs is getting laws (and codes) changed at the appropriate legislative body, often accomplished by changing the people elected to said bodies.
Sure, it’s slow and cumbersome, but it protects the rights of the individual as well as those of the majority. That’s how democracy and the rule of law works. And I think that is what the community really values – because it doesn’t want to be stuck with the unintended consequences of chaos, anarchy and tyranny, be it benign or otherwise.
I think chaos is what we’re getting now, though, since the farm store has operated for several years prior to this sudden order to close. Considering all the city and county visits that must have taken place during the time that they were working out the road realignment, this ‘new’ interpretation is rather coming out of left field.
Has everyone taken a look at the 299-page staff report regarding the action and the appeal? It’s utter crap to navigate, but we have to try to understand it. There’s a lot more at stake than just the store.
http://archive.ci.corvallis.or.us/DocView.aspx?id=259782
Kate, thank you for the link to the City’s report. I cringe when I think about the City (our) resources that went into that thing.
Last June I attended an SAO event centered on an issue presented by Robel Tadesse the Chief Information Officer for the City of Corvallis. He bravely explained to us that the city had become the “single point of failure” because it lacked community input into operational processes. He then asked us for input on addressing the issue.
It would have been easy for him to dismiss the community as “not caring enough to engage”. He did not. I was very impressed with his candor and willingness to ask for help.
I think about this event whenever I hear about a City process that requires community input.
Curtis, I am not sure that Robel would agree with your assessment that the Land Use Code came to be with lots of public input. I think we are going to find out very soon what the community’s view on that is.
Loyan, I think you are right about public input. In my experience in Corvallis a small committee/group get together with staff and hold a lot of meetings (staff doing all the work) and then hold periodic public meetings to present their plan. By the time the record is open for public comment, the group is so far down the path it’s hard to change direction.
There may have been lots of meetings, but I’m not sure there was a lot of public input on the current code because I would guess most Corvallis residents don’t “care” about the code until it directly affects them. Planned development overlays are not interesting unless it impacts what you want to do!
I tried to read the document on the City’s archive, but the web based reader kept on resetting me back to page one every time I tried to turn the page, so I gave up in frustration last night.
It was doing the same thing to me… so frustrating! Chris or Loyan, were you able to get your hands on that PDF that Mayor Tomlinson was talking about last night on Twitter? I’d be happy to post it on my site, if you want to share in the hosting of it.
I haven’t been able to read the report yet, but couldn’t the order to close have waited until after the appeals process?
I just turned the 299-page thing into a PDF. Now what? Anyone want it?
Dennis, I guess the store is still open for now. Not sure when they will actually have to close.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by chrisnordyke: Is The Land Use Code More Valuable Than Our Community? http://ow.ly/HpVK #WeLoveCorvallis…
Katherine, I created a PDF of the City’s report and uploaded it here for us. At 20MB its still pretty big. But at least in PDF form it should be more stable.
http://www.welovecorvallis.com/wp-content/uploads/cc-bald-hill-closure-staff-report.pdf
Kate, feel free to grab the PDF and upload it to your site. I fear that making it available is just a token step though. If I was purposefully trying to deter people from finding certain information, I would hide it in a 300 page document.
I spent over 2 hours trying to sort through the 299 page report and like Katherine, finally gave up in utter frustration. I got the meat of the report in two hours but talk about a clunky way to present information. I do NOT believe that there is any attempt on the part of the staff or city to withhold or obscure information nor do I believe that they want to make it difficult for the citizens to get to the information, it just is an unstable and difficult piece of junk software. They probably lack the funds to update it to a more stable platform. The city should attempt to stretch to reach a reasonable decision in the case of Bald Hill Farm. We are not going to find a more outstanding partner to work with. The Martin family comes with all of the traits we attempt to attract to our area to do sustainable development, job creation, wealth generation. They are Prosperity That Fits! and yet even they can’t get past the codes and development overlays. Somehow, we must find a way.
Kate and Loyan, I’m glad you were able to create a PDF of the report and distribute for people to review. We are trying to balance several challenges with the application powering the archives site.
The simplest solution is to purchase more licenses for public viewing and increase the amount of time a license is allocated to an individual on the site. As long as you have a license dedicated to your browser, your position within a document will be remembered. However, while all of the licenses are allocated, both public and City staff are denied viewer access until one is available.
Without those additional licenses we have opted to increase availability, and clearly usability has sufferred. I will speak with Robel about your frustrating experiences, and encourage the purchase of additional licenses.
Until then, please everyone look for the “Download PDF” button on the right side of the toolbar.
[...] been a lively discussion at the We Love Corvallis (hereafter WLC) blog, too. The post itself is filed under [...]
Lordy. Well, I tried the Download PDF option the first night I found that document, and it tied up my laptop for a good long time, so I gave up. But, better success the next day!
Thanks for the info, Julius. I had no idea there was a viewing license involved.
This is an email from Mr. Martin to Kevin Young regarding the land use appeal indicating that the closure report by the city contains errors.
http://www.ci.corvallis.or.us/council/mail-archive/ward1/msg12414.html
The mayor asked me to let everyone know that – until a City Council decision is made – he is not able to participate in conversations about the Bald Hill land use issue here, or at Facebook or on Twitter, because of ex parte contact limitations in Oregon land-use law.
In life you cannot ask how to accomplish something before you ask should you be doing it in the first place.
Do we remember Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi as horrible law breakers or leaders?
In my book a leader is one that does what is right no matter what the law says. The other option could be considered cowardly.
Without the right kind of leadership, the United States would have never came into being. We would have done what the Britsh told us was “the criteria set forth.”
Matt-
I suspect others may dismiss your comment as naivete, but i wholeheartedly agree with you.
However it’s a whole lot easier to just fall in line with the status quo. Maybe we’ll get more reasonable as we get older and cause less trouble. Course Ghandi died a trouble-maker (to some).
“Leadership according to convenience” is not leadership at all.
Are you guys trying to say that mayor thomlinson should disregard the law to comment on this blog, and put himself and the city at risk? To what end? Open dialogue among a few technorati? Don’t see the greater good in that. Have to weigh in among the more seasoned…”you’ve got to know when to use a silver bullet and when not to…you’re only given so many in a very long life.”
My comments weren’t toward anyone in particular.
I am disappointed that a law prevents city leaders from engaging with citizens in any circumstance. But comments here are a small matter compared to the closing of the Bald Hill Farm store.
I am far more concerned that our City Councilors will vote to uphold the order to close the store not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is what the law requires.
The present land development code was developed with the intention of promoting a livable community. At the same time, the code was given more clear and objective language to make it easier for economic development to occur. The request for a more streamlined development process came from the business community. Economic development had been stalled by the need for many public hearings required by the older code. People have expressed concern about the message Bald Hill will send to developers. If the law is not upheld, those developers will not know what rules they can depend on. They will go elsewhere. It is unfortunate that the Bald Hill farm people did not check in with the city before they started their business. But other people did. It is not fair to the people who follow the code to give a free pass to Bald Hill.
Who are these other people you refer to Stewart?
The ones following the law…can you cite a SIMILAR project that managed to navigate all the appropriate letters of the law to a successful end?
The scope of this project includes some pretty unique attributes as far as I can tell, not to mention the generous partnership(courtesy of Martin and Co) with the County that kicked off this project.
Our values haven’t changed, only the circumstances since the community developed the code. Should we not flex and accomodate what matches our values- those values that initially spawned the code itself?
“Intentionally following the letter of the law but not the spirit may be accomplished through exploiting technicalities, loopholes, and ambiguous language. Following the letter of the law but not the spirit is also a tactic used by oppressive governments.”
~ From the opening to “Letter and spirit of the law” on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_and_spirit_of_the_law
I am reminded of the Disney feature “Aladdin” where, near the end of the story, Princess Jasmine wants to marry Aladdin but her father said she couldn’t because the law said she must marry a Prince. Jasmine asked who made the laws, and her father said the Sultan. So, she asked, if the Sultan made the law, couldn’t the Sultan change the law? And, of course, he did so she could marry Aladdin.
So….who in Corvallis “makes the law” in Corvallis? And who can change it? Hm?
We the people
I have lived here for 17 years and Corvallis has ALWAYS been good at running business off!
Anyone interested in land use won’t want to miss the next City Club meeting!
Speakers:
Andrew Martin, Bald Hill Farm, Inc., Corvallis
Dan McGrath, staff chair, Linn County Extension
Peter Kenagy, Kenagy Family Farms Inc., Albany
September 13, 11:45 to 1:15
NOTE THE NEW LOCATION
Banquet Room, Renaissance Building,
136 SW Washington St., Corvallis
http://www.cityclubofcorvallis.org/
http://twitter.com/ccofc