710 acres lost? Not on our watch
We’re going to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals
Photo: Ryder Redfield
The fight continues for 710 acres in the Lower Bridge Valley
In the Lower Bridge Valley, you can witness the vast, open landscapes and rolling hillsides that support Deschutes County’s agricultural economies and provide welcome habitat for wildlife.
Since Oregon passed its renowned Land Use Planning System in the 1970s, this area has been protected for exclusive farm use. This means Deschutes County identified this area as part of the limited supply of Oregon’s remaining agricultural land, and statewide policies were put in place to protect this area for a farming future.
Here, thriving farms and ranches produce an array of local food and products, like award-winning wines and fresh produce you’ll find around Central Oregon’s farmers’ markets, restaurants, and grocery stores.
We don’t want to see this farm valley lost forever to sprawling development.
Neighboring farms in the Lower Bridge Valley: LandWatch
Over the past year, LandWatch has taken a stand alongside neighboring farmers and ranchers to oppose this conversion. Hundreds of residents have also expressed concern to Deschutes County over groundwater use, loss of farmland, infrastructure strain, and impacts to wildlife.
The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted last month to approve the application to rezone the area to allow 71 residential plots, in a 2-1 vote. Commissioners Patti Adair and Tony DeBone voted to remove this land from the exclusive farm use zone, while Commissioner Phil Chang opposed.
Last week, we filed a Notice of Intent to Appeal the Board of County Commissioners’ decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).
Keeping Deschutes County farmland priced for farming
As agricultural land across the country hits record-high prices, farmers and ranchers are priced out because they cannot afford to acquire land priced for development.
For fifty years, Oregon’s land use laws have been directed toward protecting agricultural land for farm use, strictly limiting fragmentation of farmland and ranchland. By restricting development on working lands, the land use laws are designed to keep Oregon farmland prices low enough for farmers to buy land or expand their operations.
Unplanned rural sprawl brings additional stressors to farming communities. Learn more from this short video.
At a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners last August, Abby Kellner-Rode with Boundless Farmstead expressed her opposition to the proposed rezone.
“Speculation in farm and ranch land has artificially increased the price of farmland, so much so that farmers and ranchers are getting priced out of the ability to buy land,” she testified.
Many other residents expressed fears over dropping groundwater levels and the impact of seventy-one new wells on the surrounding aquifer. The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), and the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) submitted a joint, three-agency letter opposing the development as contrary to law and noting the risks to the agricultural land base, the aquifer, and wildlife habitat.
LandWatch believes this approval violates the laws protecting farmland for farm use and directing growth inside urban growth boundaries. That’s why we’ve filed an appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals.
Wasim Muklashy
A WATCHDOG FOR CENTRAL OREGON
At LandWatch, we serve as a watchdog organization and continually monitor development across Central Oregon. When we see something that clearly violates Oregon’s land use policies or environmental laws, we sound the alarm.
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