When someone believes a city, county, or special district has made a land use decision that violates a local or state planning or zoning regulation, their recourse is to appeal the decision to the
Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). This is the appropriate avenue for most disputes over land use decisions. In certain circumstances, however, a decision-maker may be making a series of decisions that do not comply with relevant regulations. In this case, rather than appealing each decision to LUBA, a party may petition the
Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) to enforce the regulations.
Enforcement actions may either be initiated by the commission, or be in response to a petition for enforcement by a party. The commission is granted enforcement authority under ORS 197.320 over a number of local government actions (or lack of actions). The commission is also granted the ability (see ORS 197.335) to impose a broad range of remedies if it finds an enforcement order is necessary.
Current Enforcement Proceedings
The following enforcement proceedings are currently underway.
Stafford Triangle Enforcement
On May 22, 2020, the Land Conservation and Development Commission (the "Commission") determined there was good cause to initiate enforcement proceedings under ORS 197.324 against the cities of Lake Oswego, Tualatin, and West Linn, Metro, and Clackamas County ("local governments") to determine whether the five-party inter-governmental agreement entered into by the cities, Metro and Clackamas County (local governments) and the three-party inter-governmental agreement entered into by the cities constitute engagement in a pattern or practice of decision-making that violates a requirement of the Metro regional framework plan.
LCDC appointed a hearings officer to hold a contested case hearing. The hearings officer issued a recommendation to not proceed to an enforcement order against the cities, Clackamas County and Metro. The Land Conservation and Development Commission considered this matter at its September 24-25 meeting and determined that it would not issue an enforcement order. The petitioner has appealed the Commission’s final order to the Oregon Court of Appeals, where proceedings are currently pending.
May 2020 LCDC Meeting Materials: see Item 7
Order Finding Good Cause No. 001915
Notice of Contested Case Hearing
Hearing Officers Recommendation to LCDC
Stafford Triangle Final Order - January 6, 2021
Enforcement Proceedings Process
Oregon Revised Statutes
(ORS) 197.319-335 and
Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 660-45 provide a process that an individual can use to petition LCDC to enforce local government, state agency, or special district for compliance with planning requirements.
The statutes and rules provide several different situations in which someone may choose to pursue a petition for enforcement. The most common petition is if a city, county, or special district has allegedly engaged in a "pattern or practice" of decision-making that violates a state or local, land use or zoning regulation.
The statutes and rules provide the process for review of the petition once it is submitted. The Department of Land Conservation and Development first reviews the petition for completeness. If the petition in complete, the matter will be scheduled for an LCDC hearing to determine whether there is good cause to proceed.
For more information about the enforcement process, contact the department.
Enforcement Decisions Library
This library contains DLCD final orders resulting from enforcement decisions made by the Land Conservation and Development Commission (from 2017 to present).