Adding to an already controversial effort to remap county lands and rewrite county policies for destination resorts, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners recently proposed two additional amendments AFTER the close of public comments.

The first amendment would allow the mapping of public lands for destination resort development, which was previously not allowed, and which would make Deschutes County the first in the state to do so without any demonstrated need and despite a range of concerns.

The second would allow a single landowner - the Cyrus Family - to map its subdivision for destination resorts, which runs contrary both to a stated interest in not mapping subdivisions for destination resorts and a stated policy not to treat certain entities or landowners different from others. The decision also came after the close of comments and following one-one on closed door meetings with members of the Cyrus Family.

In response to concern expressed by members of the public and by Commissioner Tammy Baney, the board has re-opened the public record and an additional hearing has been set for June 30, at 10am in the Barnes and Sawyer Room, 1300 NW Wall Street. If you have concerns over this issue, we'd strongly urge you to attend and voice them.

Our comments related to this process and these issues are attached.

In addition to our opposition on the two proposed amendments, we'd like to express our disappointment in the board's continued efforts to downplay important policy processes such as this one by suggesting they don't actually lead to the approval of any developments and that issues can be resolved later during applications. While applications often determine how a resort will occur, not whether it will occur. The resort map predetermines numerous outcomes that cannot be addressed with later.