Commissioners move forward with code compliance revisions; Hearings set for Dec., Jan.
By Cole Goodwin and Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., March 20, 2024 — Wasco County Commissioners are moving forward on changes to the Wasco County Code Compliance and Nuisance Abatement Ordinance or WCCCNAO after receiving a staff update on Wednesday.
At the heart of the issue is code enforcement attempting to make stronger laws to bring long-standing violations into compliance while at the same time ensuring other property owners that enforcement will be brought primarily by a complaint.
One property owner told Commissioners it was not anyone’s business to tell others how to live or what to do on their private property.
Kelly Howsley Glover, Interim Planning Director for the County, laid bare the concerns of the general public about the revisions.
“On one side people think we can just hop in a bulldozer and go on site and clear the land and on the other side of the aisle folks think we shouldn’t have any authority,” said Hoswsley Glover, noting that enforcement and abatement is always the County’s last resort in mitigating violation issues.
Howsley Glove and Ted Palmner, Code Compliance Officer gave a presentation on the history of WCCCNAO, the 2020 reorganization of the program, suggested ordinance updates and ongoing efforts to address public nuisance, public health, and land use violations ordinances.
The County currently enforces both Land Use Development Ordinances and revocations of Conditional Use Permits and staff said 90% of violation cases are complaint-driven.
The program has maintained a goal of using enforcement as a last resort since the '80s, placing an emphasis on voluntary compliance and working with citizens to turn violations into permitted activities.
“We have successfully helped transition many folks from a violation into having a permit which has a lot of public benefit,” Howsley Gover said.
For example: it is much easier to sell a property that is in compliance than one that is not.
Howsley Glover shared that one of the most recent impactful changes to the program has been the deprioritization of junk and trash accumulation nuisance cases which occurred in 2022.
The change has resulted in lighter caseloads for staff, which have decreased from an average of 60+ cases a year to between 20 to 25 cases a year.
“In 2009 and 2010 the caseload was more towards the 100 cases per year and slowly decreased,” said Palmer.
Better caseloads have helped to reduce staff turnover.
“This has been a really big success,” said Howsley Glover.
The priorities of the program have been restructured to spend:
70% of staff time on violations that involve: land use activities that impact environmental/natural resources and pose significant health and safety issues and/or structures under construction that do not meet standards
20% of staff time on violations that involve land use activities that pose significant health and safety issues and;
10% of staff time on junk and trash accumulation nuisance violations.
The program has also eliminated anonymous complaints due to the majority of anonymous complaints being unfounded and a waste of staff time to investigate.
As a result of recent changes, the program is seeing most land use violations taking an average of 1.5 years to resolve. Outliers are two long-standing cases that have been ongoing for 4 years and 10 years.
Likewise, nuisance cases now take an average of 1 year to resolve, although five long-standing nuisance cases have been ongoing for significantly longer with the longest ongoing case having been ongoing for 13 years. The case has already reached maximum penalties and the County now sends quarterly reminders of the property being in violation and that the County is available to help them pursue compliance if they choose to do so.
The presentation also reviewed citizen feedback and several recommended updates to the WCCCNAO to clarify and reorganize the enforcement and abatement process so it is clearer for staff and citizens.
The presentation offered Commissioners several possibilities for moving forward.
Howsley Glover said that the County could move forward with the current updated draft of the ordinance and remove optional additions, noting that it would address many concerns but would leave some outstanding and necessitate future updates.
Optional updates concerned overgrown vegetation and grading, updated purpose, updated/added definitions on disabled vehicles and usable firewood, and retaining language with minor revisions.
Another option presented to the county was to make substantial changes to the ordinance, essentially starting from scratch and kicking off a 3-5 year process of public input, staff time, legal reviews, the concurrence of the Columbia River Gorge Commission concurrence and a minimum of $25,000.
Of all the options presented, the staff's least favorite option was to do nothing.
“We initiated the ordinance update based on citizen feedback on how to improve enforcement and abatement,” said Howsley Glover.
“If we leave it alone we will still have a pretty problematic procedure, it will not be clear to citizens,” said Howsley Glover.
Commissioner Steve Kramer was in favor of moving forward with the current draft of the ordinance.
Commissioner Phil Brady was in favor of a more substantial effort to rewrite the ordinance and requested an additional presentation covering chapters one and two of the ordinance focused on enforcement and abatement.
Kramer said his concern with the substantial changes option is that it would slow the process of enforcement within the County.
Commissioner Scott Hege spoke to public concerns that code enforcement updates may overreach and result in minor issues being enforced.
Hege said he shared their concerns initially but that his understanding now was that enforcement and abatement processes were reserved for extreme cases that have been ongoing for years involving raw sewage that is being discharged improperly, extreme junk accumulation and other such issues that result in significant public health and safety issues.
“To be clear it’s not about the enforcement of your pile of wood or my pile of wood of my twelve tires that I have or my vehicles, it’s other stuff,” said Hege, pointing out that the ordinance has been around for twenty years and not been used to facilitate neighbor battles or prosecute minor issues.
Hege shared this photo of as an example of a code violation that would warrant a follow up from the County.
County staff pointed to proper vehicle and tire storage as common nuisance complaints.
Several members of the public expressed concerns about changes to the ordinance.
One question was why has the County proposed these changes to policy that will impact everyone as opposed to finding other ways to just deal with the longstanding issues outright using alternative means.
Howsley Glover responded that the County’s lens on equity requires that they can’t make specific rules to target specific individuals but have to make rules that are equitable and apply to all members of the public.
One property owner said it was not anyone’s business to tell others how to live or what to do on their private property.
Another said he would like to see the County start from scratch with the ordinance, expressing concerns about government overreach, having checks and balances, and creating assistance programs to help people fund clean-ups of their property.
Following public comment staff were directed by Commissioners to make non-substantive edits to the ordinance, including updates to language in the ordinance. Meaning the process of staff revisions and legal reviews will begin in April and Commissioner hearings will take place in December 2024 and January 2025.
To watch the Wasco County Commissioners March 20th, meeting click here.
Follow these links to learn more about Codes Enforcement in Wasco County including more about the: Process, FAQ , Hoarding Information, Helpful Links, Ordinance Updates, ot to Contact the County to File a Complaint
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