2010-183-Ordinance No. 2010-005 Recorded 3/31/2010REVIEWED
LEGA COUNSEL
DESCHUTES COUNTY OFFICIAL RECORDS CJ 2010-1~3
NANCY BLANKENSHIP, COUNTY CLERK
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 03/31/2010 08;13;19 AM
IIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I II III
2010-183
BEFORE THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DESCHUTES COUNTY, OREGON
An Ordinance Amending Deschutes County Code
17.24.105 to Authorize Any Deschutes County Board * ORDINANCE NO. 2010-005
of Commissioners Member Signature on Partition
and Subdivision Final Plats and Declaring an
Emergency
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners ("Board") requested that Deschutes County Legal
Counsel staff initiate a text amendment to Deschutes County Code ("DCC") 17.24.105, Final Plat Review, in
order to formally authorize any County Commissioner to sign final plat instead of only authorizing the Chair and
Vice-Chair to sign; and
WHEREAS, after notice was give in accordance with applicable law, a public hearing was held on
February 11, 2010 before the Deschutes County Planning Commission and, on that same date the Planning
Commission recommended approval of the text amendment; and
WHEREAS, the Board considered this matter after a duly noticed public hearing on March 24, 2010 and
concluded that the public will benefit from changes to the land use regulations; now therefore,
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DESCHUTES COUNTY, OREGON, ORDAINS
as follows:
Section 1. AMENDMENT. DCC 17.24.105, Final Plat Review, is amended to read as described in
Exhibit "A, attached and incorporated by reference herein, with new language underlined and deleted language
setforth in stfilethfough.
Section 2 FINDINGS. The Board adopts as its findings in support of this decision, the findings
attached as Exhibit "B" and incorporated by reference herein.
PAGE 1 OF 2 - ORDINANCE NO. 2010-005
Section 3. EMERGENCY. This Ordinance being necessary for the public peace, health and safety,
an emergency is declared to exist and this Ordinance takes effect on its passage.
Dated this ;q of , 2010 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF DESCHUT S COUNTY, OREGON
DENNIS R. LUKE, Ch it
C4~4-+z
ALAN UNGER, Vice Chair
ATTEST:
4
Recording Secretary TAMMY BANEY, Commis i er
Date of 1" Reading: 'day of 2010.
Date of 2nd Reading ?-Y "r day of 2010.
Record of Adoption Vote:
Commissioner Yes No Abstained Excused
Dennis R. Luke
Alan Unger
Tammy Baney
Effective date: at-day of , 2010.
PAGE 2 OF 2 - ORDINANCE NO. 2010-005
17.24.105. Final Plat Review.
A. Upon payment by the applicant of any fees required by the County, the Planning Director and such
other County departments as he shall deem appropriate shall review the plat and other data submitted
with it to determine whether or not the subdivision or partition as shown is substantially the same as it
appeared on the approved tentative plan and for compliance with provisions of DCC Title 17, the
tentative approval, and other applicable laws. -
B_ilf the Planning Director determines all conditions of approval have been satisfied, the final platn shall
be submitted to the Board of ee n*y Go missionefs for approval.
C_A final plate may be approved by signature of AMthe ehaifpefse ° ^'~-~~Board
member.
BD.Review and approval under DCC 17.24 shall occur in accordance with DCC 17.24.110.
(Ord. 2010-005 § 1 2010 Ord. 97-045, § 1, 1997; Ord 93-012 §28, 1993)
Chapter 17.24 (03/20106)
Page 1 of 1 - Exhibit A to Ordinance 2010-005
FINDINGS DECISION OF THE
DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
APPLICANTS: Deschutes County
APPLICANTS' Laurie Craghead, Assistant Legal Counsel
ATTORNEYS:
REQUEST: Amend DCC 17.54.105 and 2.05.060 to Authorize Any
Deschutes County Board of Commissioners Member Signature
on Partition and Subdivision Final Plats and Declaring an
Emergency.
STAFF REVIEWER: Laurie Craghead
BACKGROUND:
The Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners ("Board") held a public hearing on
March 24, 2010 on Ordinance 2010-005. The Board will considered a minor text amendment
initiated by Deschutes County Legal Counsel staff, at the request of the Board, to Deschutes
County Code (DCC) Section 17.24.105. This section of the code currently allows only the Chair
and Vice-chair of the Board to sign plats without approval of the entire Board; although the
Board may designate another commissioner to sign documents in place of the Chair, which has
happened in the past. The purpose of the proposed text amendment is to allow for any Board
member to sign plats without the necessity of a formal designation from the Board.
PROPOSED TEXT AMENDMENT
The proposed text amendment is detailed in the Exhibit A attached to Ordinance 2010-005 with
text underlined for new language and shown as etFike##reagh for deleted language.
REVIEW CRITERIA AND FINDINGS
State Statutes
In 2005, the Oregon State Legislature added ORS 92.100(7) to say that the signature of the
governing body on a final plat is not a land use decision. In 2007, the Legislature amended
ORS 197.015(10)(b) to include in the list of what is exempt from land use decisions, any
decision of the local government "(G) That approves or denies approval of a final subdivision or
partition plat or that determines whether a final subdivision or partition plat substantially
conforms to the tentative subdivision or partition plan." Thus, no particular process is required
by state statute for approval of the final plat. As a result, the County can determine who is
authorized to sign a final plat and the County has no criteria to be used in establishing that final
plat signature process.
Additionally, because this is not a land use decision and, as stated below, the Statewide
Planning Goals are not relevant, ORS 197.610 is not applicable and staff will not send notice to
the Oregon Department of Land Conservation ("DLCD").
Page 1 of 3 - Exhibit B to Ordinance 2010-005
Statewide Planning Goals
Because the governing body signatures on final plats are no longer land use decisions, the
Statewide Planning Goals are not applicable to this amendment. Additionally, even if this text
amendment were to be considered a land use decision, once a local jurisdiction's
comprehensive plan is acknowledged by DLCD as complying with the Statewide Planning Goals
and a zoning code amendment is determined to comply with the local jurisdiction's
comprehensive plan, the Statewide Planning Goals are not applicable to that text amendment.
Therefore, because, as described below, this text amendment does comply with the County's
Comprehensive Plan, the Statewide Planning Goals do not apply to Ordinance 2010-005.
Deschutes County Comprehensive Plan
Because the majority of the County's Comprehensive Plan focuses on uses within the county
and this text amendment is a minor procedural change and not a land use decision, the only
chapter that may be relevant to this proposal is DCC Chapter 23.124, Citizen Involvement. Staff
appropriately provided the public notice of the public hearing before the Planning Commission
by publishing notice of the hearing in the Bend Bulletin on January 17, 2010 and by including
the text amendment on the county's website, which is readily available to the public. Notice for
the Board hearing was published on March 14, 2010. This is more notice than what is required
for a non-land use text amendment. Therefore, the goals and policies in DCC Chapter 23.124
are satisfied by this legislative process.
Other County Code Requirements
DCC Chapter 22.12
Because the signing of a plat is no longer a land use decision, the proposed amendment is not
officially a land use regulation that is normally under the purview of the Planning Commission.
Because, however, this particular code provision is in the County's subdivision and partition
code title, Title 17, and DCC 22.12.010 requires all land use code legislative changes to be first
reviewed by the Planning Commission, staff presented this provision to the Planning
Commission and then to the Board.
DCC 22.12.030 allows the Board to initiate legislative changes, which it did in this case. As
listed above under the Comprehensive Plan discussion, staff followed the publishing and
posting requirements of DCC 22.12.020. As required by DCC 22.12.040(B), this ordinance was
heard by the Planning Commission prior to the Board taking action on the ordinance. Given that
the ordinance is the subject of the notices and the hearing, DCC 22.12.050 is also satisfied.
Other than what has been discussed in this decision, however, nothing exists in the way of
applicable code criteria against which to evaluate this ordinance. Thus, this code chapter is
satisfied in all respects.
CONCLUSION
Time is usually of the essence for a developer and, thus, the timing of the signatures on a plat
prior to recording can be critical. The Board should have the flexibility of each commissioner
being authorized to sign a partition or subdivision final plat in the event the Chair and Vice-Chair
are not available to provide that signature. Thus, this text amendment is in the public interest to
allow for this flexibility.
Page 2 of 3 - Exhibit B to Ordinance 2010-005
The Board has verbally given signature authority in the past to the third commissioner. That
authority, however, should be codified. This text amendment, along with the text amendment in
Ordinance 2.04.060 will provide that formal authority.
Because timing is critical for the signing of these plats, the Board finds that providing the formal
authority quickly is appropriate. Therefore, adopting this ordinance by emergency is
appropriate.
Page 3 of 3 - Exhibit B to Ordinance 2010-005