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Clackamas hearings officer leaves record open after staff recommends denial of Astra Solar 12‑acre project
Summary
At a March 12, 2026 Clackamas County land‑use hearing, county staff recommended denial of Astra Solar’s conditional‑use application for a 12‑acre, 3 MW photovoltaic facility, citing impacts to mapped prime soils and site‑distance/setback concerns. The applicant disputed those findings; the hearings officer left the record open for additional evidence and set filing deadlines.
Joe Turner, the hearings officer contracted by the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, opened a March 12 public hearing on Astra Solar’s conditional‑use application for a 12‑acre photovoltaic facility at 25205 South Metzler Park Road and reviewed the rules for testimony and appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals.
County planning staff presented their report and recommended denial. Joy Fields, county planning staff, said the roughly 60‑acre parcel is proposed to host a 12‑acre solar array and that staff found the application failed to meet multiple approval criteria. Staff flagged prime soils in the parcel’s northeast corner (classified in the staff report as an 80B soil mapping designation) and said Oregon Administrative Rules that limit solar on high‑value farmland require a showing that avoidance is infeasible. Fields said the applicant had not demonstrated infeasibility and that there appeared to be discrepancies on the submitted site plan regarding setbacks and site‑distance for the proposed access drive.
Counsel for Astra Solar, Tim…
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