Hello Everyone-
We have rougly two months until we know what will happen with the Chevron near Bethany Lake. So, in the meantime lets plan the necessary next step: updating Washington County land use codes to require setbacks from sensitive areas like parks and wetlands.
To that end we have taken a few initial steps including comments at the Board of Commissioners, Planning Commission, encouraging Tualatin Riverkeepers to write a letter to Commissioners, and a few meetings with commissioners. The discussion has been focused on the motivation for a code update and the data to support it.
If you want to dig into this effort to update the land use codes to have stricter requirements for gas stations checkout: postpump.org. On this site we are assembling the news articles, data, and references to help make the case for this land use code update.
Yesterday, an online newspaper article was published covering the Chevron on Bethany Lake story: “Proposed Bethany gas station draws ire from neighbors”(archive). I think the article does a pretty good job outlining the current situation with the Chevron near Bethany Lake and the required next steps to update the land use code.
Last week at the Public Hearing for the the Chevron near Bethany Lake the applicant asked for a continuance to tweak their application based on public comment and the Staff report.
Joe Turner, the Hearings Officer, has granted the applicant a continuance and a new Public Hearing on January 20, 2022 at 9 a.m.
I will keep this list informed as the new documents are made available.
Thank You,
Brandon
P.S. Yesterday this newsletter hit 100 subscribers! Please keep sharing nabgas.com/signup page with neighbors!