Clackamas planners continue rezoning hearing after staff urges denial of Goal 3 exception

The Clackamas County Planning Commission on the evening it opened public testimony on files ZO315-25-CP and ZO316-25-ZAP but continued the hearing to Feb. 23 to allow the applicant and staff time to exchange more evidence.

The application—read into the record from the hearing notice—sought a comprehensive plan map amendment to change the site’s designation from agricultural to rural and a corresponding zone change from Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) to Farm Forest 10 (FF-10). The change would allow a minimum parcel size of 10 acres and, unlike the applicant’s original 5-acre proposal, remove the need for an exception to Statewide Planning Goal 14. The applicants (who identified themselves in testimony as Mike and Mary Payton) told the commission they bought the roughly 15‑acre Sandy-area property in 2023 and want a home and modest family-scale farming uses there.

Principal planner Martha Fritze told commissioners staff received three outside comments (from 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Department of Land Conservation and Development, and county engineering) and that the two statewide-interest groups recommended denial. In her oral report, Fritze said the applicant submitted an amended request that morning to change the zoning request to FF‑10, which “eliminates the need for the Goal 14 exception,” but…