LandWatch and Friends of the Metolius (FOM) filed their opening brief to the Oregon Court of Appeals on March 24, arguing that the approval of destination resort zones around the Metolius is improper.

Working for the Native Restoration Fund of Vulcan Power Company, Mark Yinger of Mark Yinger Associates, along with Laura Strauss of Northwest Land & Water, recently a rigorous assessment of the hydrological impacts of destination resorts with particular emphasis placed on the proposed Thornburgh development. The report is entitled, "A Case Study: Thornburgh Resort Water Resources Impact Evaluation (Upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon)"

Due the report's large size, we've broken it up into several files including an executive summary, the body of the report, tables, figures (broken out by different sections) and finally appendices. All are attached to the bottom of this post.

As we've mentioned in previous posts (here and here) when Governor Kulongoski threatened to veto SB 30 last June, he did so with a promise - that he would task ODF&W, OWRD, and DEQ with addressing causes for concern created by large-scale destination resorts near the Metolius and ask them to evaluate whether or not existing law could address those concerns.

Recently, LandWatch received letters from DEQ and ODF&W via the Governor's office, and just this morning, we received OWRD's letter as well, albeit through unofficial channels. Each is attached to this post below.

Though the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) in a February 11, 2008 decision acknowledged that destination resorts proposed for the Metolius area could have the impact of small cities and ruled that Jefferson County needed to reassess impacts to wildlife, LUBA failed to recognize the need for protection of other natural resources of the Metolius, including its heart, the Headwaters of the Metolius.

On Monday, March 3, Central Oregon LandWatch along with Friends of the Metolius appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals the LUBA determinations that:

When Governor Kulongoski submitted a letter to Diane Rosenbaum, Chair of the House Rules Committee, on June 22nd of last year, in what amounted to a veto of Senate Bill 30, he did so because he remained unconvinced that the state's land use system wasn't up to the task of protecting the Metolius Basin from the impacts of destination resorts. His appeal was to let the process play itself out.

When the Oregonian published an editorial on June 10th titled, "Yes, This River Must Be saved," that paper's editorial board asked whether Oregon could protect the precious Metolius River without subverting its land-use system and water laws.

Earlier this week, after receiving a State Land Use Board of Appeals decision (attached below), and a letter from the Governor's office, LandWatch's longstanding assertion that the state lacks clear authority to protect the Metolius and its basin and that new solutions are needed was confirmed.

Recent legal wrangling over proposed destination resorts in Central Oregon has grabbed its share of the headlines over the last several months. Among the numerous issues that have raised eyebrows are impacts to groundwater, wildlife, agriculture, and the cost of providing traffic infrastructure to serve these large-scale developments.

On November 29th, the Oregon Department of Transportation's Region 4 Manager, Bob Bryant, sent a letter (attached below) to LandWatch acknowledging that the approach used to calculate the resorts' share of the cost of providing needed highway facilities is outmoded and needs to be updated. Bryant's letter states that the agency is working to address this problem.

It's well known by now that although destination resorts are supposed to be focused on overnight visitation that they're becoming increasingly residential in nature and use. For several years now, the industry has focused on relaxing laws that restrict the sale of individual lots and the private single-family houses that are built upon them. The increase in privately-owned houses has been justified in part by the fact that many of them are supposed to be made available to overnight visitors, and that the owners themselves are only there - we're told - about 25% of the time, on average.

However, some of us have speculated that even if current owner occupation is low and homes operate successfully as rentals for the time being (the jury's still out on both these assertions, with the latter falling into the "extremely dubious" category), that over time many of these units will become places of primary residence. It's happened in other resorts areas - will in happen in Central Oregon?

This morning at the their regular 10:00 business meeting, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners approved a long-discussed text amendment to loosen the county's regulations regarding destination resorts.

Commissioners Dennis Luke and Mike Daly voted in favor, while Commissioner Tammy Baney voted against the measure. Baney's objection was over her concern with an element of the application that would allow private residences to be made available to renters for only 38 weeks a year instead of 45 weeks a year.

I'm reporting on this not to pick a fight with two of our County Commissioners, but because I think it's important that people understand just how the issue of destination resorts is being legislated in Deschutes County.

Earlier this week, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners held a final scheduled worksession regarding an application from the resort industry that if approved would significantly relax the county's resort guidelines. Additional Details are here, but most significantly these rules would allow resorts to back out of the obligation of providing dedicated overnight lodging units and instead allow them to pursue potentially limitless numbers of private residences. In other words: less resort, more subdivision.

Watching news accounts of the California fires, and the monumental catastrophe unfolding in San Diego County, I can't help but think of similar risks right here in Central Oregon, and of the relationship between land use planning and natural disasters.

Oregon Business Magazine has published another piece (their first piece is here) on destination resorts in its October issue, quoting both myself and resort advocate Linda Swearengin.

This is a short piece focusing on the anticipated application for Seven Peaks resort in western Crook County as well as the status of the effort to protect the Metolius River from resorts there. Swearengin told the magazine that she believes that market for resorts in Central Oregon has yet to reach its peak, offering "You don’t come in on a wing and a prayer to develop these resorts" as evidence of a long-term demand.

We have our doubts.

Last week, I attended the American Planning Association's Great Northwest Planning Conference in Tacoma to present on a panel regarding destination resort planning, its benefits and impacts. Also on the panel were Terri Payne, a long-range planner from Deschutes County, and Mike Usen from SE Group, whose business is resort planning.

What did I learn? Primarily three things:

1. Washington has unique elements to its destination resort law that Oregon doesn't that are aimed at addressing and mitigating environmental and other impacts.
2. Despite those, planners and others in the planning community from around the state still have tremendous concerns over impacts from existing and planned resorts as well as the potential for additional resort development in the future.
3. There are more resorts in Central Oregon alone than in all of Washington.

Last night, a group going by "Concerned Citizens of Crook County" held a meeting in the Powell Butte School House to discuss growing concern over how destination resorts will impact their rural community.

Thus far, Crook County has approved two large-scale resorts in the region, Brasada and Remington Ranch, and a third - Hidden Canyon - is expected to be finalized once the resort and ODOT sign an MOU over traffic improvements. Together, these resorts will bring perhaps well over 3,000 residences, condos, and overnight units to this farming and ranching community of about 900 people.

A fourth resort, Seven Peaks, is reportedly close to readying its application for another 600 units. And although the first three went through without much of an organized opposition - aside from a few dedicated and concerned neighbors - Seven Peaks is causing quite a stir.

HeadWaters Economics, who also just released this study on the potential economic impacts of a Badlands Wilderness east of Bend, has also released a new study on the potential for future development on fire-prone lands and the implications on future fire-fighting costs. The report, which addresses fire risk throughout the west, also as a section on Oregon.

Over at the Source onlline, "the Eye" has graciously given our new website a little press. Thanks for helping to get the good word out Eye, we appreciate the plug.