25-26-Ordinance No. PL-8 Recorded 7/6/1977va 25 FAcE 26
1 IN THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
2
OF THE STATE OF OREGON
3 FOR THE COUNTY OF DESCHUTES
4 In the Matter of an Ordinance)
Providing for a Hearings ) ORDINANCE PL 8
5 Officer )
6 The County of Deschutes, Oregon, ordains as follows:
7 Section 1.000
8 The County Board of Commissioners may appoint or designate
9 one or more qualified persons as planning and zoning hearings officers
10 to serve at the pleasure of, and at a salary fixed by, the Board of
11 Commissioners. The hearings officer shall have the power to conduct
12 hearings on applications for zone changes, subdivisions, conditional
13 uses and variances.
14 Section 2.000
15 In the absence of a hearings officer or his inability to serve,
16 the Planning Commission shall serve as hearings officer with all the
17 same powers and duties.
18 Section 3.000
19 The hearings officer shall use the same procedures for the
20 conduct of hearings as does the Planning Commission.
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WW;°o 21 Section 4.000
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,yaw 23 to the Deschutes County Planning Commission, and the Planning
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25 may review decisions of the hearings officer on its own motion. An
26 appeal may be taken from the Planning Commission to the Deschutes
Page 1 - Ordinance
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1 County Board of Commissioners, as provided by ordinance.
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Adopted this 6th day of July, 1977.
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BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
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Page 2 - Hearings Officer Ordinance No. P1-8
FACE 27
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LEAGUE of WOMEN VOTERS of DESCHUTES COUNTY
July 6, 1977
Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
Bend, Oregon
Gentlemen:
The League of Women Voters of Deschutes County strongly supports the proposed
ordinance to provide for a planning and zoning hearings officer. The Planning
Commission has been overburdened in recent months with time-consuming hearings as
well as with routine matters; we wonder how much longer citizens who are volunteer-
ing their time can be expected to carry such a load. A hearings officer could
relieve such of that burden, giving the Planning Commission time for vitally
needed long range planning and zoning, including the updating of the comprehensive
plan.
We believe that, if possible, the person appointed to this position should
be an attorney, for the following reasons:
a) an attorney would know the law and procedures;
b) an attorney would know how to research the problems;
c) an attorney would know how to report findings of fact, which provide the
essential basis for whatever decisions are made.
In short, because of the training in, and knowledge of, the law which an attorney
would have, his or her decisions should be more able to withstand challenges so
that the load would not again fall back on the Planning Commission.
Further, we hope that it would be possible to adopt procedures so that appeals
to the Planning Commission or to the Board of County Commissioners would provide
only for a review of the facts already brought out before the hearings officer
rather than a full-scale new hearing. This should remove mach of the time-consuming
aspect of the appeals to these bodies without denying either the public or the
interested parties the right of appeal.
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Poll S for ident
Desch a Co ague of Women Voters
BEND, OREGON 97701