Yamhill council adopts emergency ordinance allowing nearby ZIP-code residents on planning commission

The Yamhill City Council voted Nov. 12 to adopt an ordinance (d025.03, referred to as ordinance 546 in the record) that changes who may serve on the city’s planning commission. The ordinance allows the council to appoint people who live outside the city limits but within five miles and within the same ZIP code to serve on the planning commission, and it took effect immediately under an emergency clause the council included.

Mayor Ed Corrigan said the change responds to difficulty filling planning-commission seats and to the risk that a missing commissioner could leave the commission without a quorum for land-use hearings. “We are running at a point where if one planning commissioner did not show up, we would have not had quorum, which would not be ideal in a land-use hearing situation because that puts the city in a situation where we could actually find yourself on the wrong end of a LUBA suit,” Corrigan said.

Council discussion emphasized that appointed commissioners still must follow Yamhill’s code and criteria, and the council retains authority to remove members for cause. Several councilors said people who live just outside the city often care deeply about Yamhill and could provide needed continuity on the commission.

The ordinance includes an emergency clause that the council read into the record and the mayor said he would sign it after the meeting. The council recorded the second-reading vote and moved on to the consent agenda.