On Monday, August 4, a number of AFP members attended a public hearing on whether to reopen the Ockenden Land Use Hearing.
The Ockendens own ~158 acres of land on Hugo Rd, the main thoroughfare between Merlin and Hugo. The land was originally zoned Rural Residential with a 5-acre minimum lot size (RR-5). In 1985, the land was arbitrarily rezoned to Woodlot Resource, purposed for Forestry and Agriculture, with no on-site investigation of the suitability of the land for that purpose. Subsequent investigations by qualified experts, including soil engineers, geologists, and surveyors, have determined that the land is not suitable for forestry or agriculture, but is suitable for rural residential development, as it was originally zoned. The expert opinions are borne out by the fact that the neighboring properties, having the same characteristics, have been developed under RR-5 and RR-2.5 zoning with no ill effects.
The Board of County Commissioners and Land Use Planning Commission already ruled, at a previous hearing, that the WR zoning was a misclassification, and that the only purpose for which the land can be profitably used is rural residential development. Ordinarily, under such a circumstance, the land would have reverted to its prior zoning classification. But, in this case, there was significant political opposition from local land use activists, whose leader happens to live on the same road as the Ockendens’ property.
This battle has been going on for 17 years. At the last land use hearing, the BoCC tried to reach a compromise by inventing a new ad hoc zoning classification of RR-15, arbitrarily restricting the minimum lot size to 15 acres, so that no more than 10 homes could be developed on the property. This made the land use activists happy, but significantly reduced the value of the Ockenden’s land, in which they had invested 17 years and most of their financial resources in hiring land use consultants and qualified experts to provide evidence to satisfy the ever-expanding burden of proof demanded by the land use activists.
None of the credentialed experts found any justification for restricting the capacity of this parcel to 15 acres per lot. All of the expert opinions concur that the carrying capacity of this land is consistent with RR-5 zoning. Those who oppose the rezoning have presented no hard evidence or expert opinions to substantiate their claims yet, for 17 years, they have been allowed to employ their customary tactics of dragging out the process until their victim can no longer afford to continue fighting them.
The purpose of the hearing on Monday was to petition the BoCC to re-open the land use hearing, given new evidence from the county surveryor and the the county road department engineer to address the concerns upon which the BoCC based the 15-acre restriction. The land use activists opposed re-opening the hearing. A number of AFP JoCo members spoke in support of allowing the new evidence to be heard. The leader of the land use activist was not able to attend, having been arrested over the weekend for violating a restraining order, unrelated to this case.
The BoCC ruled in favor of re-opening the hearing. The date for hearing the new evidence will be October 29, 2008. Please attend to support the Ockendens in their struggle for justice and the preservation of private property rights in Josephine County.
