In a somewhat complicated analysis, the Oregon Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) rejection (LUBA No. 2010-002) of the proposed Riverbend Landfill expansion in Yamhill County, OR.
... the county did not expressly take an exception to allow a landfill on high-value farmland... It may very well be that Riverbend's intended use, expansion of a landfill on agricultural land, is a use precluded by Goal 3. The goal inhibits nonfarm uses on agricultural land that are not "defined by commission rule." OAR 660-033-0120 disallows landfill expansions on "high-value farmland" unless the expansion is of an "[e]xisting facilit[y] wholly within a farm use zone." The existing landfill is not within a farm use zone. The county, however, did not take an exception to allow a landfill on high-value farmland; the exception findings do not even identify the soil characteristics of the three exception tracts. LUBA's remand to the county will allow a more careful focus on the plan designation and nature of any exception to be taken for the expansion area, as well as the implementing zoning for that plan designation.
This means it goes back to the county and Riverbend Landfill, to either
- further attempt to change the Yamhill County's Comprehensive Plan to justify and attempt to take the exception or to
- pursue alternatives (such as these) to the proposed landfill expansion.
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