A state review panel has rejected a Lake Oswego plan to remove a tree grove from a list of protected natural resources.
The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ordered last week that the city's changes to its resource conservation plans were too broad to be exempted from regulation. Metro appealed the Lake Oswego City Council's plan to remove the tree grove, located east of the 14000 block of Goodall Road, to the state.
The tree grove is protected as part of Lake Oswego's development code, which was developed in the late 1990s to comply with Statewide Land Use Planning Goal 5 – Natural Resources, Scenic and Historic Areas, and Open Space. Those standards were then adopted as part of the region's Urban Growth Management Functional Plan, specifically Title 13 – Nature in Neighborhoods.
Title 13 says cities shall not change its rules in a way that would "allow any more than a de minimis increase in the amount of development that could occur in areas identified as upland wildlife habitat."
Lake Oswego attempted to remove six tree groves from protection; Metro focused its appeal on impacts to one tree grove.
The city said the changes were "de minimis," a legal term meaning they were too minor to be substantive. But the three-member LUBA panel found that it was possible that removal of the tree grove from the protected list could allow for the development of as many as eight houses.
"There is no question that such development could not be characterized as 'trifling' or 'so insignificant that (it) may be overlooked,'" the panel said in its order. "We do not understand the city council to have concluded that such development could be characterized as de minimis."
The LUBA panel did not suggest how Metro and Lake Oswego could resolve the disagreement about the regulations. The Lake Oswego City Council could try to craft a new ordinance relating to the rules, or could appeal LUBA's order to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
Neither Metro Council President Tom Hughes, nor Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, whose district includes Lake Oswego, were available for comment Tuesday. An advocacy group for the relaxation of the rules, Citizens for Stewardship of Lake Oswego Lands, did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Lake Oswego city attorney David Powell said the Lake Oswego City Council had yet to be briefed on the order.