If you have a long memory, you might recall that the County Board of Commissioners (BOC) voted in 2015 to approve a 29-acre landfill expansion that would bring garbage right up to Highway 18. By law, the expansion could be approved only if the County found that expanding the dump would not impose "significant impacts" on surrounding farms.
The County found no "significant" impacts, but just in case, it added conditions of approval that required Riverbend to pay some farmers for the harm their farms incurred as a result of landfill activities. LUBA upheld most of the County's decision, and landfill opponents appealed.
The Supreme Court ruled, first, that a "significant" impact is an impact that is greater than merely "measurable" but less than "major." It is not at all clear that the County applied this standard.
Next the Court held that each "accepted farm practice" on each impacted farm must be analyzed separately. Any one significant impact is sufficient to preclude approval.
Finally, the Court also held that a nonfarm use like the dump cannot get around the significant impact rule by compensating farmers for impacts or by paying them off ("pay to play").
The Supreme Court's rejection of "pay to play" is particularly important. If the Court had ruled that a nonfarm use could buy its way onto farmland, farms throughout Oregon would have been in jeopardy. There are 27 different nonfarm uses, from resorts to golf courses, that could have used this option to expand onto farmland.
What's next? LUBA could re-analyze the County's 2015 factual findings itself, or it could send the entire case back to the BOC for a fresh look under the newly-defined rules.
Stay tuned!
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