County delays action on $7 million Dimple Hill case under Measure 37

By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times business editor

It will be at least another two weeks before the Board of Commissioners rules on Benton County’s biggest Measure 37 claim to date.

The commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to continue a hearing on a request by the Brand S Corp. to waive land-use restrictions on a 160-acre parcel on Dimple Hill, a scenic landmark that rises above the northwest side of Corvallis. The board will consider the claim again at its next meeting, scheduled for noon May 8 in the basement meeting room of the Benton Plaza, 408 S.W. Monroe Ave.

The company wants permission to build up to 74 houses on the land, which is zoned for forest conservation. It also wants approval to build a single house on an adjacent parcel. Failing that, Brand S is asking nearly $7 million in compensation.

The commissioners considered the matter in October but delayed a decision, then on Nov. 8 put all Measure 37 claims on hold until the state Supreme Court could consider a constitutional challenge. The justices upheld the

property-rights initiative in February, but it was early this month before the state Department of Land Conservation and Development issued its final order on the Dimple Hill claim.

Not that the land-use planning agency’s ruling settles everything. Exactly how the order should be interpreted remains up in the air, along with numerous aspects of Measure 37, which has proved as contentious in its implementation by local governments around the state as it was during the 2004 general election.

The reason for Tuesday’s continuance was to give Benton County commissioners time to read through the DLCD order. The text of the document was added to the record, but no additional testimony was taken.

Neither Brand S President Jack Brandis nor his attorney, George Heilig, was present at Tuesday’s hearing.

Peter Idema, the county’s development director, repeated his recommendations from October: approve most of the claim, but hold firm on a regulation requiring a 300-foot fire break between dwellings and the adjacent forest. Heilig said in October he’ll contest that requirement, even though Measure 37 specifically allows enforcement of public safety regulations.

If the claim is approved, Idema suggested, the matter could get bogged down again once Brand S submits specific development plans for the property. At that point, he told the commissioners, they will have to wrestle with how to apply state land planning goals in force when Brand S bought the property nearly 30 years ago.

“This is sort of an emerging issue,” he said. “I don’t have all the definitive answers on how the county applies the statewide goals.”

The Brand S property, a wooded tract crowned with a meadow, lies between upscale subdivisions off Glenridge Drive and Oregon State University’s MacDonald Research Forest. It has been zoned forest conservation since 1978.

But Brand S acquired the land a year earlier, when it was zoned urban residential.

Under Measure 37, property owners can seek a waiver of land-use regulations that have diminished the value of their holdings or demand compensation for their loss. Brand S has placed a value of $6.9 million on its loss of development rights.

The county argues the number ought to be about $5.5 million, but because no money has been set aside for compensation in Measure 37 claims, the question is probably moot.

Idema told the commissioners they will have to decide how to apply the 1977 version of statewide planning goal No. 4, which calls for protecting forest lands.

That prompted some discussion among the three commissioners.

“We can’t require the state to resolve it,” said Chairman Jay Dixon.

“We can try,” countered Linda Modrell.

“We’ve tried before,” Dixon noted, “without a lot of success.”

“Well, at some point the state’s going to have to resolve this,” Annabelle Jaramillo argued. “They can’t just dump everything in the county’s lap.”

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.