This should be a no-brainer: preserving a uniquely special place in Oregon — the Metolius River Basin recreation area — that is threatened by two large destination resorts.
But brains are in short supply among some who approve of this potential travesty.
As noted in my 2007 "Save the Metolius from destination resorts," Jefferson County commissioner Bill Bellamy came up with this astoundingly poor reason for allowing about 3,000 homes and a couple of golf courses to be built near the Metolius:
"Whether or not you like what destination resorts have done, it's phenomenally significant what they do to property tax revenues."
This shows the mentality that led Jefferson County to change its zoning of the area to allow the resorts, even though the vast majority of people who live in the Camp Sherman area were opposed.
In the 2007 legislative session a Metolius-saving bill, Senate Bill 30, died after Gov. Kulongoski said that he wanted to let the land use planning process go ahead before intervening.
I noted that even horses were for SB 30, yet opponents of the resorts didn't get a fair shake at the hearing that I attended on the bill.
Now its 2009 and the Governor is doing the right thing, even though an Oregonian editorial failed to realize this. Kulongoski isn't playing "red light, green light" with the would-be developers, because he said back in 2007 that if state agencies told him that current laws can't protect the Metolius Basin, something needed to be done.
Bob Stacey, 1000 Friends of Oregon executive director, cleared up the editorial board's confusion in his own follow-up opinion piece, "Protecting the Metolius."
It is true that during the 2007 session Gov. Ted Kulongoski
signaled that he would not — at that time — support proposed
legislation that offered special protection for the Metolius.
But The Oregonian suggests that "the developers naturally took the
governor's stand as a sign he would allow them to pursue their resorts
under existing land-use law."
That reasoning ignores the fact that on June 22, 2007, the governor
instructed state agencies to report back to him on whether existing
state law would be sufficient to protect the Metolius Basin. What the
governor heard back was that existing laws would not fully protect the critical natural resources of the Metolius Basin from harmful effects of resort development.
As a result of these reviews, the governor concluded that additional
protection for the Metolius is warranted. We agree. We find it odd to
suggest that the governor should not consider every tool in the toolkit
to protect this unique treasure for all Oregonians. We applaud his
leadership.
So now Kulongoski has asked the Department of Land Conservation and Development to consider whether the Metolius River Basin should be designated an "Area of Critical State Concern."
Public hearings have been scheduled next week in Sisters and Madras. Comments on the proposal also can be emailed. If you're a lover of the Metolius, as my wife and I are, let DLCD know that you don't want this beautiful area to be ruined by giant destination resorts.
If the Area of Critical State Concern process doesn't work out, the Governor has a backup plan: legislation that would stop the resorts. Central Oregon Landwatch and others also have succeeded in getting the Oregon Supreme Court to accept an appeal of the Jefferson County rezoning.
So one way or another, I'm hopeful that the Metolius will be protected.
It'd be a shame to allow the greed of a few county commissioners for more property tax revenues to trash an area that has been officially designated "wild and scenic."
Adding 3,000 homes in and near the Metolius Basin, where only a few hundred people live now, doesn't sound like a good way to preserve a wild and scenic river.
(Click below for an email message I got from Central Oregon Landwatch, describing the upcoming hearings and the need for people to comment on the Area of Critical State Concern plan.)
2