The County's long awaited Cell Tower Ordinance has a second hearing before the Planning Commission onApril 6th at 5:30 pm (See staff report). A Citizens' Advisory Committee organized by HRVRC worked with the County for 18 months to come up with the draft proposal which seeks to strike a balance between providing a necessary service and minimizing visual impacts on residential areas and our county's scenic views. In January, ATT sent a team of lawyers to review the draft ordinance and propose a "redline draft" of industry-written changes, often at the expense of the scenic and quality of life values the original draft was designed to protect. The Planning Commission will now need to decide standards for where cell towers can go, how high they can be and what they can look like. Meanwhile, a proposed cell tower at Windmaster Corner has been appealed by neighbors to the project (hearing April 13th). Our…

Our case against the US Forest Service had its first test in Federal District Court on Wednesday and we emerged with a win! Last July, we filed suit against the Forest Service for "unreasonable delay" after waiting more than six years for them to complete the Mt. Hood/Cooper Spur land exchange ordered by Congress way back in 2009. The Forest Service had sought to have the case thrown out, saying that the court did not have jurisdiction to compel the agency (USFS) to act. Judge Anna Brown disagreed and denied the  Forest Service's Motion to Dismiss. At the hearing the judge said that the "agency can't ignore a mandate of Congress, put it on a shelf and let years go by." In such situations, the court can enforce a mandate of Congress. In denying the Forest Service's Motion to Dismiss, Judge Brown noted that the sheer lapse of time would…

Hood River County is in the final stages of updating its entire Farm and Forest zoning code for the first time in 20 years. The purpose of the update is to bring Hood River’s code into harmony with changes in state law and to make those code sections clearer and easier to understand. While that sounds simple, it has been a Herculean task for the county’s Planning Commission and staff. There have been seven work sessions and three hearings. Preserving farm and forest land for farming and forestry is at the core of our mission, so you can be sure that we have been present at every session. We are supportive of the proposed changes which generally offer more robust protection for our working landscapes with particularly strong protections for the county’s best farmland. The two key issues for HRVRC were prohibiting destination resorts in the forests of Mount Hood and the…

Gil Kelley, Director of Citywide Planning for San Francisco and former Planning Director for theCity of Portland, was the keynote speaker at our Annual Meeting, August 16 at the home of Kate Mills. Gil is also a part time resident of the Hood River Valley. His wife Jan has recently become a fulltime resident of Baldwin Creek Drive and Gil joins her on long weekends and holidays. This is an excerpt of his talk. I was asked to relate my San Francisco experiences to Hood River. That question may seem like a head-scratcher at first, except that, in some ways, what happens in the cities and towns in North America has the largest influence on the areas outside them, the rural areas. As a colleague of mine, Mike Houck often says, “In livable cities is the preservation of the wild.” Making cities work so that people want to be there…

Extensive excavation, fill and tree removal along Phelps Creek and in the wetland areas of David Ryan’s new property at the corner of Country Club and Frankton (the proposed Super Walmart site of a decade ago) and Andy von Flotow's adjacent property have resulted in cease and desist orders and enforcement measure by state agencies. See coverage from Hood River BizBuzz. Inquiries to the county have revealed a gap in the County’s land use code that needs fixing. It turns out the County has no code directed at protecting natural resources in the Urban Growth Area (UGA). The City of Hood River has a Natural Resources Overlay that protects riparian areas and wetlands in the City Limits. Outside of the UGA, Hood River County’s Stream Protection Overlay would have prohibited most tree removal and excavation within 50 feet of Phelps Creek, but the overlay zone specifically does not apply in the…