Deschutes County staff brief board on Eastern Oregon solar rule choices; mapping and irrigation data noted as critical

Deschutes County staff on Monday briefed the Board of County Commissioners about new state rules for siting solar in Eastern Oregon and presented three paths the county can take: opt out of the state's streamlined process, take no action (and be subject to the state's default opt-in), or undertake a local, mapped-option where the county identifies specific parcels eligible for the streamlined process.

Peter Gutowski, community development director, said the state rule changes were written for sparsely populated eastern counties with large contiguous parcels and that Deschutes County's parcelization, irrigation patterns and transmission constraints make the statewide approach less directly applicable without local tailoring. "They're really written for sparsely populated rural counties," Gutowski said. "In our county...our exclusive farm use parcel size is orders of magnitude smaller than what you see east and north and east and south of Deschutes County." He added that many irrigated parcels are ineligible under the state's eligibility rules, and that mapping irrigation districts and transmission lines will be important for the board to evaluate which option to choose.

Key considerations: Staff said the state produced a broad eligibility estimate (the packet referenced roughly 97,000 potentially eligible acres), but that irrigation and water-rights layers refine that number. Commissioners asked for maps that overlay potentially eligible acreage with irrigation district boundaries and transmission lines; staff said some GIS layers (in particular water-rights/polygon-of-use data) are not universally available and that mapping will take further work. Staff also noted the state criteria include proximity-to-transmission thresholds (staff cited roughly 10–11 miles as a meaningful distance to major transmission lines) which limits feasibility for many parcels.

Options and tradeoffs: Staff described three approaches: 1) opt out and retain the county's existing conditional-use/site-plan process; 2) take no action and remain opted in (the state rules apply by default); or 3) conduct a local process to pre-identify and map eligible lands (the most resource-intensive but locally tailored option). Gutowski said each option still requires a land-use review: even under the state framework there is discretion to interpret criteria and staff warned a decision under any option remains a land-use decision that can be appealed.

Scale and context: County staff emphasized that while large commercial solar farms often sited in other Eastern Oregon counties span hundreds of acres, most Deschutes County solar approvals to date have been smaller (staff cited an average around 100 acres for nonfederal projects) and many of the county's larger eligible acreages are federal lands where different rules apply. Staff also pointed to a sizable commercial solar project contemplated on federal land between the Rapid area and Bend east of Highway 97; that project would be reviewed under federal rules.

Next steps: Gutowski and staff told commissioners they will provide additional maps (potentially including irrigation district boundaries and transmission-line ownership) and return Wednesday for further board discussion; staff said the board can take until the end of the year to make a formal choice.