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Milton-Freewater-area resident Richard Jolly first made his proposal to the nine-member commission at a June 25 meeting, asking for a Goal 5 amendment to set aside a section of land east of Highway 11 as a viewshed to be protected for its aesthetic, natural resource and wildlife values. The meeting attracted a packed house.
While that's the official proposal on the table, Planning Commission Chairman Gary Rhinhart agreed the commission is facing a more basic struggle: deciding between the rights of property owners in the foothills to do what they want with their land and the rights of people who drive along Highway 11 or live in the flatlands who appreciate the view.
Despite the opposing views, Rhinhart seemed to be excited about the discussion. "It's planning at its best," he said. "We should talk about how many we want and where we want them."
During the last meeting, Commissioner Clinton Reeder called the wind turbine problem the tip of the iceberg.
Rhinhart agreed there could be a whole host of problems associated with wind turbines, such as building 200 miles of new roads to access them and runoff from those roads down the Blues' steep slopes into the Walla Walla River. During the June meeting Commissioner John Standley compared trying to understand all the problems with trying to eat a watermelon with his hands tied behind his back.
"We're struggling with that," Rhinhart said. "I think all of us on the planning commission are."
To try and settle some of the uncertainties, Umatilla County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott has been working to educate the commission on what Goal 5 resources are already in place and other land use laws and regulations relating to such development in the Blues. She's outlined these issues in a memo to the planning commission.
According to Mabbott, the Goal 5 resources in the Blue Mountains can be divided into four categories: critical winter range for elk and deer, a natural area to protect two official wetlands, historic and archeological protection for buildings and American Indian cultural sites and scenic resources.
Mabbott said there are already some scenic resource areas set aside in the Blues: The entire stretch of Highway 204, or Tollgate Highway, Langdon Lake, Haney Viewpoint and Elephant Rock. Some sites, like Elephant Rock, are only protected to "look upon," while others, like Tollgate Highway, are protected to "look from, travel through or be in or beside."
But whether the protection is adequate, or whether it needs more protection proposed by Jolly's viewshed, is up to the planning commission.
Although these set aside protections, some - such as deer and elk winter range - only address a need to protect them from residential development. When the protection was written in 1983, that was the only forseeable development that could take place in the mountains, she said.
Another official Goal 5 resource is energy. Mabbott's memo said it was meant to protect mostly hydro facilities, but could be extended to solar or wind resources, too. The report determining these resources was written in the 1970s, so an update would be useful, she said.
"Such a Goal 5 update would be a large undertaking," Mabbott's memo says. "... Such a Goal 5 process would be a proactive, long-range planning effort."
The planning commission would have to inventory resources and complete an environmental, social, economic and energy analysis, which would also be required if the commission chose to designate Jolly's viewshed as a protected resource.
The planning commission will hear from testimony for and against Jolly's proposal. Jolly will also make a presentation to further define the significance of the viewshed.
Richard Jennings, Umatilla County senior planner, will address soil erosion and Eric Quaempts, director of natural resources for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, will address tribal interests. Mabbott also invited Jim Johnson, land use liaison with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and Amanda Punton, a Goal 5 planner with the state department of land conservation and development.
Rhinhart said he will likely close discussion at 10 p.m. since he, like others, is in the middle of harvest and will have to hop back on a combine at 5 a.m. the next morning. If the issue isn't settled, the planning commission may address it again Aug. 23. Jolly's proposal is also scheduled to be addressed by the county commissioners at 9 a.m. on Sept. 22.
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