Washington County reviews zoning history and risks of conditional-use process

County Judge Deakins and the Washington County Planning Board heard a detailed history of the county's zoning rules and their legal risks during a presentation by planning consultant Jeff Hawkins, who said the county's heavy reliance on conditional-use permits has left officials exposed to court challenges and produced inconsistent outcomes.

Hawkins traced the issue to a 2005 Protecting Agricultural and Rural Areas (PERA) effort and the subsequent adoption of the Washington County Plan for Land Use and Development and an emergency zoning ordinance in 2006. He said the county's approach left most unincorporated land limited to agricultural and single-family residential uses, while other uses were funneled through conditional-use permits, creating what he called de facto spot zoning and serious legal uncertainty.

"Zoning's not an easy thing to implement. Balancing property rights with overall community interests is never easy," Jeff Hawkins said, summarizing the trade-offs communities face when adopting and applying land-use rules.

Nut graf: The briefing was intended to restart a stalled conversation about a longer-term, more defensible zoning code. Hawkins and county legal advisers urged the board and County Judge Deakins to consider a conventional zoning…