Action: Gas station petition in Washington County

Hello Everyone-

After over 6 months of delay we finally got a response from the Washington County Staff regarding our petition to introduce common sense siting setbacks for gas stations. And SPOILER it is not good news.

Staff Response:

The requested siting restrictions would constitute a virtual prohibition on new gas stations in the urban unincorporated area. Staff is not aware of any other Oregon jurisdiction that has similar restrictions.

New gas stations are an uncommon development request in the urban unincorporated area; the County has received only one request for a new gas station in the last 10 years.

For these reasons staff does not recommend placing a new item on the work program to address this request.

See pg 13 of the draft work plan

Our petition was motivated by the approval of Bob Barman's Chevron which is set to be sited 80ft from public wetlands, Rock Creek trail/park, and is directly upstream of Bethany Lake.

What can be done?

If this response is frustrating to you keep reading or take action now in one of two ways:

1. Email County Commissioners - County Commissioners have the power to criticize and set priority of Staff's Long Term plan email bcc@washingtoncountyor.gov by clicking here
2. Comment on the Online "2023-2025 Work Program Open House" by clicking here

Unpacking Staff's Response

The Staff's opinion is only three sentences but it will take me a bit to unpack it all.

The requested siting restrictions would constitute a virtual prohibition on new gas stations in the urban unincorporated area. Staff is not aware of any other Oregon jurisdiction that has similar restrictions.

First, Staff has continually moved the goal post on this request. Initially when I came to them with the request one Staff member replied that only "small niche boutique municipalities" are implementing these sorts of common sense gas station restrictions. Then, when I came back with specific data that counties and cities with larger populations than Washington County have implemented these changes they moved the goal post in their response that other municipalities in Oregon need to do something first before they will do something.

This is all ridiculous. Washington County is the fastest growing area in Oregon and is considering expanding their urban growth boundary once again due to the increase in population.

As an example, our request of a 1,500ft setback is identical to that of Montgomery County Maryland which has a population of 1,062,000 vs Washington County Oregon's 600,000. (see example codes)

Further, Staff’s claim that our request would “constitute a virtual prohibition on new gas stations in the urban unincorporated area” is a flippant dismissal. Our request is a median based on other municipalities codes that range from full bans to setbacks as minimal as 300ft (see examples). Staff’s response lends zero professional courtesy to our request and provides zero context. They could have improved their response by simply saying, “The request of a 1,500ft setback would cause XX% of the commercial zoned parcels in the County to be prohibited from building gas stations. In urban unincorporated areas that figure would be as high as YY%. If the request was reduced to 500ft, for example, the percentage of parcels would increase to ZZ%.” As simply as that they could have made a considerate response that established their expertise while also educating both the public and County Commissioners on the scope of our request and the problem at hand.

New gas stations are an uncommon development request in the urban unincorporated area; the County has received only one request for a new gas station in the last 10 years.

Second, it is laughable to claim that since a new gas station has only been requested once in 10 years that is reason enough to not consider protections. Every single County Commissioner I spoke to about the Chevron adjacent Bethany Lake (Pam Treece, Kathryn Harrington, and Nafisa Fai) said something to the affect "that doesn't seem right to put a gas station there." The entire point of land use is to ensure uses that conflict are not adjacent to each other. Why is that important? Because buildings and the businesses they house last for a LONG TIME and you need laws to ensure you get the siting right.

And the fact is current land use laws that allow for gas stations to be sited anywhere in commercial districts without setbacks from sensitive areas like parks, schools, or wetlands make no sense. Read the excellent regulatory guidance we have gathered.

For these reasons staff does not recommend placing a new item on the work program to address this request.

Third, Staff's recommendation to not put this on the 2023-2025 Work Program means that it won't be considered again until the 2025-2027 Work Program under the new biennial frequency. Bob Barman's gas station was initially proposed in 2020 so waiting until 2027, using the County's own logic, would mean we will likely see another proposed gas station in that window or soon after.

Look, I am deeply frustrated not just with the Staff's response but also their flippant and dismissive tone. We have zoning and development codes to protect community features from other uses. Gas stations, objectively, make adjacent lands worse for our people, our parks, and our waters. So, the code is not working as intended. Fix it.

What can be done?

If this response is frustrating to you keep reading or take action now in one of two ways:

1. Email County Commissioners - County Commissioners have the power to criticize and set priority of Staff's Long Term plan email bcc@washingtoncountyor.gov by clicking here
2. Comment on the Online "2023-2025 Work Program Open House" by clicking here

Closing Thoughts

I am deeply concerned about how Washington County Land Use Staff are resourced and prioritize their work. The proposed "Tier 1" 2023-2025 work plan contains few significant work items that aren't either required by the State/Metro or in one case required because the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission told the County they are out of compliance with Significant Natural Resource State laws passed in 2017. Funnily enough they list the SNR issue as a "community request"- I guess a 6 year fight requiring the State to step in multiple times is one way to say "request".

There is nothing more inert than a government bureau. There is nothing more inert than a planning office. It gets going in one direction and it’s never going to change of its own accord…The citizens are going to have to frustrate the planners. I thereupon began to devote myself to frustrating planners, and so did the whole neighborhood." - Jane Jacobs

Thank You,

Brandon

P.S. I have no updates regarding Bob Barman's Bethany Lake Chevron. He did drop his LUBA appeal and the County hasn't responded to my request for an update.

The Nootka roses are in full bloom all along Rock Creek. Be sure to check them out- beautiful sight and scent!