Fighting to save farmland in Jefferson County
LandWatch is joining forces with the Jefferson County Farm Bureau to defend 67 acres of prime farmland in Jefferson County. The land is under threat of being rezoned for non-farm use.
On May 11, we filed an appeal at the Land Use Board of Appeals to challenge a recent decision by Jefferson County that allows the City of Metolius to expand its urban growth boundary onto land zoned for exclusive farm use. The Jefferson County Farm Bureau intervened in the case on our side.
Aerial image of the City of Metolius from Google Maps.
The City of Metolius is located about four miles southwest of Madras in Jefferson County. You can find it right in the middle of the North Unit Irrigation District (NUID). The County’s decision converts 67 acres of farmland to urban land. While the land is partially occupied by an existing sewer facility, the majority of it is irrigated farmland.
We’re proud to partner with the Jefferson County Farm Bureau, whose members are hardworking farmers in Central Oregon’s most productive agricultural region.
As champions of Oregon’s statewide land use planning system, we support planning for growth to provide needed housing and employment opportunities in Oregon’s cities. But here, Jefferson County approved an urban growth boundary expansion without any demonstrated need for more land. Once farmland is rezoned away from exclusive farm use, it is likely to be developed with other uses and never farmed again.
LandWatch works with our cities and counties across the region to both promote smart growth in our cities and protect rural land for farms, forests, and open space. We try and collaborate to achieve compliance with state land use law locally, but sometimes those efforts are ignored.
When we have to, we aren’t afraid to go to court for our region’s natural resources and defend our statewide land use planning system.
Protecting Central Oregon’s farmland requires constant vigilance and oversight of development and LandWatch will continue to be here to heed the call.