PLA25-022 Staff Decision - Laserfiche WebLink

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4. Property line adjustment deeds shall be recorded with the Marion County Clerk’s Office. Per ORS 92.190 (4). Marion County Assessor’s Office provided information regarding taxes on the subject properties. All other contacted agencies either failed to comment or stated no objection to the proposal. 7. The criteria for reviewing lot line adjustments within an EFU zone are listed in Chapter 17.136.090(C) MCC. These criteria are as follows: 1. When one or more lots or parcels subject to a proposed property line adjustment are larger than the minimum parcel size pursuant to subsection (A)(1) of this section, the same number of lots or parcels shall be as large or larger than the minimum parcel size after the adjustment. When all lots or parcels subject to the proposed adjustment are as large or larger than the minimum parcel size, no lot or parcel shall be reduced below the applicable minimum parcel size. If all lots or parcels are smaller than th e minimum parcel size before the property line adjustment, the minimum parcel size pursuant to this section does not apply to those lots or parcels. 2. If the minimum parcel size in subsection (A)(1) of this section is larger than 80 acres, and a lot or parcel subject to property line adjustment is smaller than the minimum parcel size but larger than 80 acres, the lot or parcel shall not be reduced in size through property line adjustment to less than 80 acres. Neither of the involved lots are above 80-acres in size, which is the minimum parcel size in the EFU zone. As such, neither criteria 1 nor 2 above apply. 3. Any property line adjustment shall result in a configuration of lots or parcels that are at least as suitable for commercial agriculture as were the parcels prior to the adjustment. The adjustment would result in the dwelling on the property being separated off from the rest of the parcel with the exception of a portion of the hazelnut orchard to the south. The western boundary of the smaller parcel with the dwelling will run along the canal that crosses the subject property, which is a natural boundary that allows that property line to not interfere with existing farming practices. The inclusion of more than half the existing hazelnut orchard onto the smaller parcel is difficult to reconcile as being “at least as suitable for commercial agriculture” in terms of the new configuration. That said, the new lot with the dwelling requires enough area for both the existing and replacement drainfields, and enough distance between those systems and the canal crossing the property. In the current configuration, if a situation were to occur where the existing septic system were to fail, a new area would need to be assigned to serve as the septic drainfield, and it is possible that this would remove part of the existing fields to serve this use. This new size accounts for that potential issue and reduces the potential need for a future property line adjustment or other method of amelioration. Also, the new configuration does not isolate any portion of the fields added to the adjacent parcel that would make it difficult to continue farming on the newly added area. As such, the new configuration is sufficiently suitable for commercial agriculture to meet the criterion. 4. A property line adjustment may not be used to: a. Decrease the size of a lot or parcel that, before the relocation or elimination of the common property line, is smaller than the minimum lot or parcel size for the applicable zone and contains an existing dwelling or is approved for the construction of a dwelling, if the abutting vacant tract would be increased to a size as large as or larger than the minimum tract size required to qualify the vacant tract for a dwelling; The proposed property line adjustment would reduce the size of the parcel with a dwelling and increase the size of the vacant parcel involved in the proposal. However, the size increase would not result in the vacant parcel of land being increased to a size where it would qualify for a dwelling based on an acreage standard. Therefore the criterion is met. b. Decrease the size of a lot or parcel that contains an existing dwelling or is approved for construction of a dwelling to a size smaller than the minimum lot or parcel size, if the abutting vacant tract would be increased to a size as large as or larger tha n the minimum tract size required to qualify the vacant tract for a dwelling;