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Public raises notice concerns ahead of Monmouth UGB land-swap hearing
Summary
Resident Brian Sparks asked the council to pause action on Legislative Amendment 252 (a proposed urban growth-boundary land swap), saying neighborhood posting and broader notice were insufficient and could create grounds for appeals; the planning commission will hold a hearing the next day.
Brian Sparks, a Monmouth resident, urged the Monmouth City Council to suspend action on Legislative Amendment 252 — a proposed urban growth boundary (UGB) land swap — and convert the planning commission’s scheduled public hearing into a work session to allow more outreach and reduce the risk of an appeal.
"We had a concern...we had a major issue that had not been addressed in the efforts thus far," Sparks told the council during the meeting’s public-comment period. He said he toured the affected areas and found no on-site signs notifying neighbors of the pending UGB change and that other routine outreach steps appeared incomplete. "I drove around today. There were no signs posted," he said, adding that people in adjacent neighborhoods would be unaware of the proposal unless they read commission or council packets.
Sparks asked the council to "suspend action on legislative amendment 252 and change tomorrow's planning commission hearing into a work session" so the council and commission could restart community outreach and avoid creating "reasonable grounds for an appeal of the UGB swap." He also referenced House Bill 2647 while urging care with the statutory and code processes surrounding legislative amendments.
City officials acknowledged the scheduled planning-commission public hearing the following day, which would produce a recommendation for the council. Councilors and staff discussed that the planning commission's action would be a step to refer the matter to the council and that the commission could continue the hearing or address notice concerns at its meeting.
The council did not take action on the request during the meeting; the planning commission hearing remains scheduled for the next day and is expected to generate public testimony and a staff recommendation to the council.
