Oregon land use court tells Coburg to redo urban growth boundary plan
Coburg's attempt to expand its Urban Growth Boundary has been appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals, and sent back to the city for reconsideration. Back-of-the-envelope calculations would imply that, if they had expanded the urban growth boundary, they would have had roughly 190 acres on which to build a projected 888 new needed homes... a density of less than 5 units per acre. This would be counter to Oregon's state goal to promote compact development within the Urban Growth Boundaries, and show that simply expanding out to build single family homes may face difficulties in other areas.
“The Lane County Board of Commissioners signed off on the plan in December. But nonprofit LandWatch Lane County appealed it to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals in January. The group claimed the city and county plan violated numerous state planning policies, largely related to the impact of an east-to-west road that would connect the city to the new industrial land, and the expansion’s effect on agricultural land.
The appeals court sided with LandWatch on several key points, and on Aug. 1 ruled that the city must reconsider what land to bring into its growth boundary.”