Newberg resident urges county not to sell Yamhill trail corridor, asks board for full accounting

Melody McMaster, a Newberg resident, told the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 23 that the county should not consider selling the 12.48-mile rail corridor purchased from Union Pacific without first publishing the financial and legal consequences.

"The corridor has deep roots in our history," McMaster said. She told commissioners the county acquired the corridor in 2017 using a mix of grant funding from the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation plus private donations and framed the corridor as a shared public asset that could connect towns and provide safe routes for walking and biking.

McMaster asked the board to direct the county administrator to provide public detail on several items before any sale is considered: how much the county would gain financially from a sale; whether the county would have to repay grant or other public funds used to acquire the property and, if so, how much; and the legal and administrative costs to complete a sale. "Before we even consider giving them up, the public deserves to know a few things clearly," she said.

McMaster disputed a claim she had heard that the Land Use Board of Appeals, LUBA, denied the trail project outright. "From what I found, LUBA did not deny the project. It remanded parts of it back to the county for further review or correction," she said, noting the remand required additional work to address neighbor concerns.

She also asked whether the board had explored measures to reduce impacts on adjacent farmland, including grants for fencing and drainage, erosion control, tax or recognition incentives for cooperating landowners, gates or access controls timed to spraying seasons, one-on-one meetings with farmers, or land exchanges near Highway 47 to adjust alignment.

McMaster warned that selling the corridor would be permanent: "But beyond the numbers, once this public land is sold, it's gone. Getting something like this back would be nearly impossible." She asked the board to consider creative approaches to make the trail a "win-win project for both the trail and the surrounding agricultural community."

The public comment concluded with McMaster asking for the requested information to be placed on a future agenda for public discussion. The board did not take immediate action on the request during the meeting.

Background: McMaster said the county purchased the corridor in 2017 with grant support from ODOT and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department; she said the corridor was bought to connect towns and provide safe routes for families. She also cited conversations with a commissioner about expected farmer opposition and asked the board to pursue mitigations before any change of ownership.

No formal county response or motion on the trail sale was recorded in the meeting transcript; commissioners did not vote on the trail during this session.