County projects clear first hurdle
County Court learns key improvement ventures are approved by alliance, but the real question centers on whether lawmakers will give their OK
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:43 AM PST
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| Lytle Boulevard (seen just outside of Vale) is a major issue of the discussion among county officials as they look around for funding for a repaving project. It was one of the top projects
submitted to the state for funding. |
VALE — The Malheur County Court spent most of its regular session Wednesday preparing for some of its meetings next month, but the elected board also decided to continue a public hearing on a proposal to expand the Malheur County enterprise zone until Dec. 12 and sifted through Measure 37 land-use claims court members will settle at meetings Dec. 5 and Dec. 12.
The enterprise zone hearing was continued because language in a similar resolution adopted by the Nyssa City Council inadvertently omitted one of the parcels of property set for inclusion into the zone. Since the Nyssa council only has one regularly scheduled meeting per month, it was decided to put off the issue until December. The county is the final signatory to any enterprise zone expansion which, if approved, will include property at airport corner for possible industrial development.
The court will decide on 15 additional Ballot Measure 37 claims filed with the county requesting compensation for land use regulations that property owners say have reduced the values of their property.
Malheur County, as with most entities in Oregon, declines to pay compensation and waives the land use regulations if claims of loss are accepted.
Claimants must still go through the proper processes to subdivide their land or other activities. They also need to file claims with the state, where state land use laws are involved.
The court will hear seven claims Dec. 5 and eight claims Dec. 12.
These will be the first claims presented to the court since voters approved Ballot Measure 49. Ballot Measure 49 alters the existing Measure 37 law and restricts the number of lots a landowner can subdivide.
However, in his review for the court, Malheur County Planner Jon Beal did not indicate there would be any issues involving Ballot Measure 49. It was passed in a special election earlier this month. The rest of the court’s time was consumed with reviewing work by the Southeast Regional Alliance. The alliance adopted a list of the county’s chief enhancement projects and incorporate them into a regional top 10 list of ventures set for approval by lawmakers in February. The regional alliance made only one change to the original county list. The regional alliance, which convened in Ontario Monday, selected Adrian’s sewer pumping station, the Lytle Boulevard widening and overlay project, Nyssa street improvements for industrial development, Nyssa’s wastewater plant and the wastewater lift station for Vale to be among the top 10 projects in the three-county region.
The Vale lift station was substituted for the Boys and Girls Club because of timing.
However, it may not mean anything if the Oregon Legislature does not provide any money at its February meeting. At that legislative session, this year, the chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee took away all the money that the regional alliance uses for economic development purposes, such as providing grants and loans to businesses to help create jobs, and told the alliance it may be refunded or partially refunded in February.
Meanwhile, officials, including Sondra Lino, Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation specialist, have been carrying out functions of the alliance, monitoring loans and grants and writing strategic plans, which may evaporate with no funding.
“These funds do help businesses, especially in the rural areas. We feel we have done a lot,” Lino said. “What are they going to do with this list. We don’t know.”
