HomeMy WebLinkAboutExhibit A - Goal One LtrGoal One Coalition
Goal One is Citizen Involvement
February 29, 2008
Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
�- c/o�Ftuth Wa Associate Planner
RECEIVED
BY: 6,11\--
FEB
FEB 2
Regarding: Request for Written Argument, on remand, Thornburgh Resort CMP (CU -05-20)
Dear County Commissioners:
Goal One Coalition is an Oregon nonprofit organization that provides assistance to Oregonians
advocating for livability and sustainability within their communities. Goal One Coalition
represented Steve Munson in the LUBA appeal of the Thornburgh Resort CMP approval, and
these comments are submitted on his behalf, in response to the "Request for Written Argument"
notice issued earlier this year.
We join in the comments and objections of co -petitioner Nunzie Gould, submitted by her
attorney Paul Dewey. We agree that, in order to adequately respond to the LUBA and Court of
Appeals remand decisions, the CMP record must be reopened.
Specifically, in sustaining Ms. Gould's first and fourth assignments of error, LUBA stated that the
county must require a "corrected" phasing plan. There is absolutely no way to get a "corrected"
phasing plan into the record without reopening the record and allowing public comment on any
such revised plan so submitted.
Additionally, the decision of the Court of Appeals was very clear that merely tweaking the
findings would not be adequate to demonstrate compliance with the wildlife impact mitigation
requirements:
"First, the county's findings were inadequate to establish the necessary and likely
content of any wildlife mitigation plan. Without knowing the specifics of any
required mitigation measures, there can be no effective evaluation of whether the
project's effects on fish and wildlife resources will be 'completely mitigated' as
required by DCC 18.113.070(D).... Second, that code provision requires that
the content of the mitigation plan be based on 'substantial evidence in the
record,' not evidence outside the CMP record."
Gould v. Deschutes County, 216 Or App _ (November 7, 2007).
The language of the Court of Appeals decision is clear — the record must be
supplemented with specifics. Merely holding a public hearing at some later date is not
enough to comply with the Court of Appeals decision, as the Court held that lack of a
public hearing was the "second reason" the decision was defective, the first being the
lack of substantial evidence in the record to support the finding of complete mitigation.
In summary, Mr. Munson joins Ms. Gould in asserting that the CMP record needs to be
reopened for additional evidence and public testimony in response to the additional
Eugene office: 642 Charnelton, Suite 100, Eugene, OR 97401 Tel 541-484-4448 Fax 541-431-7078
www.goall.org
EXHIBIT
evidence. We protest this attempt to exclude the public from the public review of this
important proposal, which has already been shown likely to have significant impacts to
the entire community.
Sincerely,
Jan Wilson, Staff Attorney
Goal One Coalition
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