Oregon City approves zone change for 19763 Parrish Road to R-10; owner must annex to Tri City Sewer before building permits

The Oregon City Commission on Sept. 17 approved a zone change for the property at 19763 Parrish Road, reclassifying it from Future Urban 10-acre (FU-10) to R-10 low-density residential. The vote was unanimous.

City senior planner Christina Robertson Gardner told the commission the property was annexed to Oregon City in February 2016 through an emergency annexation following a failed septic system but that a required covenant recording to apply city zoning did not occur. The current owner, who purchased the property after that annexation, informed staff they had been unaware the site lacked a city zoning designation and sought to add a building breezeway, which triggered the need for a city zone in order to issue any building permits.

Gardner said staff analyzed the proposal under the city's comprehensive plan and land-use code and that the Planning Commission recommended rezoning the parcel to R-10 at its Aug. 25 meeting. Staff also carried out the transportation planning rule analysis for the "reasonable worst-case" redevelopment scenario and concluded the city’s transportation system plan provides adequate capacity and no transportation-system amendments are required.

The commission approved the R-10 designation with a condition that the applicant pay for and complete annexation into the Tri City Sewer District before any building permits will be issued for the site. Gardner explained the Tri City annexation is an administrative step on the district’s side that follows the city’s annexation ordinance and is required before sewer hookups and related permit activity can proceed.

Applicant Brandy Henry told the commission she purchased the home in February 2016 and was not informed at closing that city zoning had not been applied. "It was kind of a shock to us that we had to jump through all of these hoops," Henry said, describing the need to complete paperwork and satisfy the sewer annexation condition before adding a breezeway.

Commissioners said the case highlighted an ongoing procedural issue: since about 2016 the city has allowed emergency annexations to take place without concurrent rezones, leaving a number of small “orphan” properties without city zoning. Commissioners asked staff to return to a future work session with options to reduce that occurrence—examples discussed included fee adjustments for small parcels, code changes to allow concurrent rezoning at annexation, or a streamlined in-house analysis process.

Motion and vote: The commission voted to approve the zone change to R-10 for 19763 Parrish Road. The motion passed unanimously. The ordinance/decision will be recorded in the property files and the sewer annexation requirement must be satisfied prior to building permits being issued.

The commission also asked staff to return with a policy and options on how to prevent similar orphaned parcels in the future and to present options at a forthcoming work session.