Planner: former mill site meets Oregon's abandoned-or-diminished mill-site statute

Principal planner Martha Fritzi explained the county applied ORS 197.719 to the property, which allows a county to rezone an abandoned or diminished mill site to industrial without a statewide planning Goal 3 exception if the statutory criteria are met.

Fritzi outlined the statute's key tests: the site must be outside an urban growth boundary, have contained permanent buildings used to manufacture wood products, and have ceased mill operations after Jan. 1, 1980 or be operating at less than 25% capacity. "So we can conclude that this does indeed even though the site's not vacant, it does indeed meet the definition of this statutory definition of an abandoned mill site," she said.

Fritzi stressed that rezoning under the statute carries limits: only the developed mill area can be redesignated and only industrial uses are permitted under the rural industrial designation authorized by the statute. She told the board that retail or commercial uses could not be authorized through this process and that any redevelopment would still require building-department review and additional land-use processes as appropriate.

Planning staff and the planning commission also discussed historical operation dates and capacity levels in the record; staff noted the sawmill had stopped operating by 2000 and that some capacity information for the early 2000s remained unclear in the record. The planning commission recommended approval and staff included conditions intended to limit nonindustrial uses.