From lisa.howard at state.or.us Tue Nov 22 13:00:16 2011 From: lisa.howard at state.or.us (Howard, Lisa) Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:00:16 +0000 Subject: [LandUse-News] Land Use News Message-ID: <0BAEA486E031B943A99D9F4E0FC1F73404FB53@DLCDSXCH05.dlcd.state.or.us> Welcome to the Land Use News e-mail list! Land Use News is an electronic news clipping service provided by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. Land Use News emphasizes local reporting and commentary on land use in Oregon and other states. The links to copyrighted news stories in Land Use News are not archived by DLCD, and the archiving policies of these sources vary. The stories, if available, reside on the site of the original news source. Please direct requests for archived stories, or permission to reprint them, to the original news source. Past Land Use News weekly e-mails may be found here: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/pipermail/landuse-news Anyone may subscribe, unsubscribe or change their subscription to the free service by visiting this site: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/landuse-news ____________________________________________________________ November 21: Insight: In Iowa, farmland boom means end of an era for many (Yahoo! News) IOWA FALLS, Iowa (Reuters) - It took just 31 minutes for Donald Ellingson's family to end an agrarian tradition that had survived more than a half-century, by auctioning off 153 acres of rich Iowa farmland. PLANT WOULD CONVERT WASTE TO ENERGY (Eugene Register-Guard) http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/27197781-41/waste-plant-eugene-compost-electricity.html.csp -A new Eugene company wants to use farm and food byproducts to make gas and generate electricity- A Eugene company is proposing to build a bioenergy plant off Highway 99 near Junction City that would turn waste straw, vegetable and fruit waste, and manure into electricity. The plant would compost the waste and burn off the resulting gas to generate electricity. November 20: Inside Facebook's Amazing Oregon Data Center (Technologizer) And Facebook has enough land here to build building #3. For a desert-like area, Prineville has a lush golf course-and Facebook is doing its part to keep it lush by donating water it uses to cool the data center once it's done with it. ... Commercial projects create Rogue Valley construction mini boom (Mail Tribune) "We're seeing contractors and subcontractors moving from survival to recovery mode," said Mark VonHolle, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc. board president and vice president of S&B James Construction Management. ... Florence seeks deal on growth blueprint (The Register-Guard) The city approved updates to annexation rules in 2009 and asked the county commissioners to adopt them as well, because the two must cooperate on the management of land between the city limits and the urban growth boundary, which encompasses land ... November 19: OCEAN ADVISORY GROUP MAPS OUT WHAT WORKS FOR OREGONIANS AND OREGON'S COAST (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/11/_ocean_advisory_group_closing.html Imagine the day when you turn to the sea and catch not the open water bobbing with boats, but the hulk of an energy buoy looming large. DATA CENTERS IN OREGON: HIGH TECH MEETS HIGH DESERT (part 1 of 3) (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/11/data_clouds_settle_in_oregon_w.html Data centers arrived in Oregon five years ago, cloaked in mystery. There's no hiding them now. SECRETIVE DATA CENTERS START TO EMBRACE SMALL TOWNS (part 2 of 3) (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/11/secretive_data_centers_start_t.html Google just wanted to be left alone. A titan of technology, the company knew little about small towns when it arrived here six years ago. Oregon is a great deal for server farms. Is the deal too good? (part 3 of 3) (OregonLive.com) That's nearly as much as the household electricity use of Seattle and Portland combined. The Northwest's share of the data center market has expanded rapidly since the council's study, and continues growing. "We're very bullish on Oregon attracting an ... County Gets Extension For School's Offer For Fairgrounds Land (OPB News) Umatilla County has been given an extension until May 1 to close on an offer from the Hermiston School District to purchase the County Fairgrounds land for $3 million. The sale would be one more piece to the puzzle for the proposed Eastern Oregon Trade ... How Curry County got into its fiscal crisis (Washington Examiner) For instance, land zoned for farm use, which accounts for much of the county's non-federal property, generates less money for the county than land zoned for more intensive uses. Land taxed as residential, commercial or industrial - land that ... THE SQUEEZE AROUND OUR NECK OF THE WOODS -- OPINION (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/11/the_squeeze_around_our_neck_of.html If a governor cuts down 20 years of forest mismanagement and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound -- or more importantly, a difference? November 18: DEVELOPERS DROP PLANS FOR TWO WIND FARMS ON STEENS MOUNTAIN SLOPES, BUT STILL PLAN A THIRD (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/11/developers_drop_plans_for_two.html Developers on Thursday dropped plans for two wind energy projects on the north slopes of Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon. MID-VALLEY FARMERS SOUND OFF ON LAND USE LAWS (Corvallis Gazette-Times) http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/mid-valley-farmers-sound-off-on-land-use-laws/article_f4f1d580-10b6-11e1-954f-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1e4p5A7kw If theres one thing mid-valley farmers appear to agree on, its this: State land use rules developed in the 1970s are no match for the complexities of 21st century Oregon agriculture. SOME OREGON COUNTIES MAY CEASE TO FUNCTION IF FEDERAL TIMBER PAYMENTS END (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/11/oregon_counties_may_cease_to_f.html Some Oregon counties will cease to function if Congress does not renew federal funding intended to replace decades of timber harvest revenue, witnesses told a state legislative committee Thursday. REP. PETER DEFAZIO INTRODUCES BILL TO CREATE ROGUE RIVER WILDERNESS IN SOUTHWEST OREGON (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/11/rep_peter_defazio_introduces_b.html About 58,000 acres in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwest Oregon would be designated the Wild Rogue Wilderness under a bill introduced Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. A guide to the "Emerald City" sewer system (EarthFix) Stories about agriculture, forestry, geology, land-use law, ... This year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality mandated that development projects ... November 17: CEDAR MILL FIRE STATION WORK STOPPED; STATE SAYS DESIGN VIOLATES CODE (Portland Oregonian) http://www.oregonlive.com/north-of-26/index.ssf/2011/11/work_halted_on_new_bethany_fir.html A state land-use board has told Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue "not so fast" in its efforts to build a new fire station in Cedar Mill. The fire district, in turn, plans to appeal the decision, which held that TVF&R's proposal to rebuild Oak Hills Station 68 on property at the intersection of Northwest Thompson Road and Evergreen Street violated two different portions of Washington County's development code. OREGON EXPERIENCES SLOWER POPULATION GROWTH (Oregon Public Broadcasting) http://news.opb.org//article/oregon-experiences-slower-population-growth/ Oregon gained nearly 20,000 people over the last year. The slow growth is due to a combination of factors. Oregon was adding 40,000 people a year a decade ago, largely because people were moving here. New population estimates from Portland State University show the state growing only about half that fast, with the growth driven more by the birth rate than migration. CLEANING UP OREGON'S COMPLEX REGULATORY SYSTEM (KCBY) http://www.kcby.com/news/local/134000983.html Oregon's regulatory process is pretty screwed up, at least that's according to Fred Granum who works as special counsel to the attorney general. He shared his views on trying to clean up the mess with local business leaders at Wednesday's Business Connection. Oregon City BMX course at Clackamette Cove is slated for demolition due to ... (OregonLive.com) Even if the track was on private property, it would require city approval, Frasher said. "If you're going to move this much dirt, you need a land-use permit," he said. "The ramps do not pose a major erosion problem at this time because they're below ... November 16: Proof That Government Can Work (Governing) Oregon's much heralded Statewide Land Use Program aims at reducing urban sprawl by setting up growth boundaries. Specific concerns included overdevelopment of the Oregon coast, pollution of the Willamette River and the loss of prime farmland in the ... Controversy swirled around scenic act in 1986 (Gresham Outlook) The National Scenic Area stretches about 85 miles, covering six counties in Oregon and Washington and encompassing more than 292500 acres, most of which fall under strict land-use regulations. East County residents can see the sudden switch from urban ... Forest Grove takes steps to overturn $6.5 million judgment (News-Times) Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of Oregonians in Action, a group that works to change Oregon's restrictive land use system, compared the case to Dolan v. City of Tigard, a land-use case that wound up in front of the United States Supreme Court. ... November 14: U.S. Farmers Reclaim Land From Developers (Wall Street Journal) Five years into a brutal national housing downturn, raw land destined for residential development has fallen so far in value that thousands of acres across the country are being used again for agriculture. Lisa Howard | Assistant to the Director Director's Office Oregon Dept. of Land Conservation and Development 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301-2540 Office: (503) 373-0050 ext. 271 | Cell: (503) 383-8911 | Fax: (503) 378-5518 lisa.howard at state.or.us | www.oregon.gov/LCD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: