Yamhill County holds first reading to remove Westsider Trail from transportation plan

The Yamhill County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 26 held a first reading of an ordinance to amend the county Transportation System Plan (TSP) by removing the Yamhill Westsider Trail project.

Caleb read the ordinance by title and noted the county originally adopted the TSP in 1996 and has amended it several times since. The reading recounted a string of legal challenges and remands by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), including multiple cases that the county lost, and a LUBA award of $47,533.43 in petitioners’ attorney fees. The board said the trail repeatedly failed to demonstrate compliance with the state farm‑impacts test under ORS 215.296 and other legal requirements.

“The board of commissioners of Yamhill County sat for the transaction of business on the day that the findings are done,” Caleb read aloud during the session. The reading outlined prior ordinances and board orders cited in the record, including ordinance numbers 605, 880, 895 and 904 and board orders referenced during the county’s multi‑year effort to develop the trail.

Chair said the removal is driven in part by the county’s assessment that the trail cannot successfully pass required legal tests and that continuing to pursue it had been costly and divisive. The board set a second reading for March 12 and directed clerical corrections (typos identified on pages 15 and 39) before the next hearing.

The session included public comment earlier in the meeting from John Linder, who urged the board to reconsider removing the corridor from the TSP and argued that removing any segment would render the corridor “worthless,” reduce the value of a public asset and risk future private parties benefiting at public expense.

What happens next: the ordinance will return for a second reading on March 12. If adopted then, the board’s stated intent is to remove the trail from the TSP and cease pursuing the project as described in the ordinance reading.