Oregon has a unique system of land use planning. While most states have a system of zoning that defines the usage rights within a region and that will have land use actions handled at a local level, few states have a higher authority that restricts some elements of land use planning at a wider state level. Then there’s Oregon, which has a land use planning system that is strictly controlled from the state level. It all began back in 1973, when Oregon adopted the “Oregon Land Use Act,” establishing statewide land use planning goals and later in 1979 created the Land Use Board of Appeals, lovingly known as “LUBA.” Today, Oregon has 19 land use planning goals in the state’s “Comprehensive Plan,” and these goals, with their accompanying guidelines, shape the way the state zones and plans usage of land. Cities and counties have their own versions of the Comprehensive Plan that guide the zones and policies on land use within that local government space. Local comprehensive plans must be consistent with the state plans, but can be more nuanced to the city’s or county’s specific needs and landscape.
When you have a client who wants to purchase a property with intent to tear down and rebuild, they should know that the proposed rebuild must be funneled through the locality’s zoning and development codes. Sometimes this means the client may learn they can’t build the home of their dreams in the forest zone and must instead build a forest template dwelling; or the client may learn they can’t develop an angry, rocky spit of land because it’s zoned for farming use only, despite the land being economically unfeasible for farming. The plucky client may think, “I can just change the zone, if it’s Exclusive Farm Use, let’s just rezone it to Low-Density Residential!” They’ll quickly learn that the change from EFU to LDR will require the county and client to balance their desire of building a home (supported by Goal 10 of the Comprehensive Plan) against all the other comprehensive plan goals. The City or County may reject the requested zone change or variance request because it doesn’t balance out the Goal 5 natural resource requirements of the county, and the loss of those 50 acres of big-game habitat would throw off the locality’s cautiously balanced land use inventory, over-favoring housing and under-favoring natural resource zones. Land use planning is an inordinately complicated process in Oregon, particularly with interest groups like Friends of Yamhill County and 1000 Friends of Oregon regularly filing lawsuits to restrict development and rezoning of property to protect natural and agricultural spaces into perpetuity. If you have a client who wants to purchase property with the intent to develop, redevelop, build, or rezone—if you have a client with big dreams about the land for the future—get them into contact with a land use attorney who can walk them through the complicated process.