Benton County postpones reconsideration hearing for Coffin Butte Landfill to Jan. 20

Benton County officials postponed a planned reconsideration of LU 24-027, the conditional-use permit application for the Coffin Butte Landfill, and set a public hearing for Jan. 20.

Petra Sheets, the planning director, said the Jan. 6 agenda originally included a public hearing on the reconsideration but that the item has been postponed to Jan. 20 "to allow some more time for that public hearing process." She said a packet will be available on Jan. 13 and that "all that information will be posted to the Coffin Butte Landfill web page in a press release that's forthcoming" and distributed via Flash Alert and the county homepage; staff also sent notice to about 1,000 interested parties.

The postponement is intended to give staff and outside legal counsel time to develop the process and timeline for reconsideration, Sheets said. "We will be working with outside legal counsels to develop a process and a timeline, based on the recommendation from the board on the next steps moving forward from that," she said.

Commissioners asked how the board will accept public input. One commissioner said they were concerned residents might come prepared to testify and find the record still closed, and another asked whether the board would accept written submissions before Jan. 20 or allow verbal testimony at the hearing. "We'll have a staff recommendation in the [Jan. 13] packet, and it'll be for you to ultimately decide," Sheets said.

County Counsel said the conversations with outside counsel and a consultant (Winterbrook) are focused on structuring the open-record period and submission timelines. Because the reconsideration window is limited to 90 days, "most likely it will be written testimony in response to any documentation that staff submits on the twentieth," County Counsel said, while also acknowledging verbal testimony remains a possibility depending on the board's decision.

County Counsel added the 90-day reconsideration clock began Dec. 16, the date the notice of reconsideration was transmitted to LUBA (the Land Use Board of Appeals), and estimated the statutory timeframe would end roughly in mid-March. "That started on December 16, which was the date that, the notice of reconsideration was transmitted to LUBA," the counsel said.

A commissioner who moved at a prior meeting apologized, saying they had not known a particular procedural requirement when they made the motion Dec. 16. "When I made that motion, I did not know that was required. So my apologies," the commissioner said.

Next steps: staff will post the Jan. 13 packet with a staff recommendation on how to proceed; the board will use the Jan. 20 hearing to open the record and decide whether to accept written testimony only or to allow verbal testimony and how long the record will remain open. The county counsel indicated outside counsel is likely to recommend that testimony be limited to new information submitted after the prior record closed.

The board did not take a final vote on the permit at the Jan. 6 work session; the formal public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20 and the board is operating under a 90-day reconsideration period that began Dec. 16.