Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society

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Common Land Use Issues & Problems
Funding
Staffing
Time
Legal Constraints
Apathy
Technocracy
The Need For Predictability
Federal and State Mandates
The Overburdened Citizen
Oregon CI Advisory Committee

COMMON LAND USE ISSUES & PROBLEMS
March 6, 2006

Land Use Committee
Hugo Neighborhood Association
Members of the CAC/NA Coalition

The Framework For Citizen Involvement
Oregon Statewide Goal 1 - Citizen Involvement (CI) calls for citizen involvement programs, but who is to design such programs and carry them out? The answer to that is a combination of local and state committees, commissions, and agencies. The most important is the local committee for citizen involvement, or "CCI." In Josephine County this committee is called the Josephine County CIC.1

Ultimately, the responsibility for any citizen involvement program lies with the local governing body (i.e., the city council, board of county commissioners, or county court). The governing body, however, usually delegates that responsibility to several organizations: the local planning department, the planning commission, a variety of committees — and the advisory group known as the Committee for Citizen Involvement (CCI). That is exactly what happened in Josephine County where the CCI is the Josephine County CIC with one hat and the Josephine County Rural Planning Commission with another hat.

Common CI Issues & Problems
"The county rammed that rezoning through without listening to the citizens!" We tried to get citizens involved, but nobody came to the hearing!" "That citizen’s group had no right to oppose my subdivision!" "The Josephine County Board of County Commissioners had their minds made up before anybody began to testify!"

Such complaints are common in Josephine County. Sometimes they are justified, sometimes not. Either way, they offer dramatic evidence that CI in land use planning often is controversial. The main issues in the county that underlie such controversy are described in this brochure series: Common Citizen Involvement Issues & Problems in Oregon: 2006. Every CI program is likely to encounter them.

One through ten of following CI issues and problems are common statewide as identified by the Oregon CIAC.2 Issue 11 was identified by the Hugo Land Use Committee.
1. Common Land Use Issues & Problems
2. Funding
3. Staffing
4. Time
5. Legal Constraints
6. Apathy
7. Technocracy
8. The Need for Predictability
9. State and Federal Mandates
10. The Overburdened Citizen
11. Oregon Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee

Oregon Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee (CIAC)
The CIAC is advise the Oregon Land Conservation And Development Commission (LCDC) on CI matters, to promote public participation in the adoption and amendment of the goals and guidelines, and to assure widespread CI in all phases of the planning process. The CIAC is established in accordance with ORS 197.160.

. CIAC is to develop a program for the commission that promotes and enhances public participation in the adoption and amendment of the goals and guidelines.

. Each local government shall submit to the CIAC on a periodic basis, a program for CI in preparing, adopting and amending comprehensive plans and lands use regulations within the respective city and county. Such program shall at least contain provision for a citizen advisory committee (CAC) or committees broadly representative of geographic areas and of interests relating to land uses and land use decisions.

. The CIAC shall review the proposed programs submitted by each city and county and report to the LCDC whether or not the proposed program adequately provides for public involvement in the planning process, and, if it does not so provide, in what respects it is inadequate.

Disclaimer. This brochure is as much about providing information and provoking questions as it is about opinions concerning the adequacy of findings of fact and land use decisions. It does not provide recommendations to citizens and it is not legal advice. It does not take the place of a lawyer. If citizens use information contained in this paper, it is their personal responsibility to make sure that the facts and general information contained in it are applicable to their situation.

@ 2010 Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society