Page 78 - Rural Tourism Report Washington County
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CHAPTER 4: RURAL TOURISM REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
How Goals 3 & 4 Translate in Washington County
Fertile soils, favorable topography, moderate Non-resource lands make up the remainder of
climate and rainfall, and proximity to urban Washington County’s rural land. Non-resource rural
markets make Washington County one of Oregon’s lands are not subject to statewide Planning Goals
most productive agricultural areas, where a wide 3 and 4 because it has been demonstrated that
range of crops and wood products are produced. they do not meet the definition of farm and forest
Consistent with Goals 3 and 4, much of this lands under state law. In Washington County, such
most highly valued rural land has been placed lands are identified as RR-5 (Rural Residential – 5
within resource districts in the County’s state- acre minimum), R-COM (Rural Commercial), R-IND
acknowledged Comprehensive Plan as Exclusive (Rural Industrial), MAE (Land Extensive Industrial),
Farm Use/Agriculture and Forest Use (EFU/AF-20) and “exception lands” designated as AF-5 or AF-10
or Exclusive Forest Conservation (EFC) land. (Agriculture and Forestry, 5- or 10-acre minimum,
respectively). These “exception” lands, have the
physical capability (e.g. soils) to be in agricultural
or forest production but have been developed to
a level or are affected adversely by other factors
to the extent that they have been determined less
suitable for commercial farm or forest use.
Related to this, Oregon’s Marginal Lands Act of 1983
(Senate Bill 237) created a process for identifying
what came to be known as “marginal” rural lands.
Such lands are deemed to be less suited to farming
and forestry than resource farmland, and are thus
not protected as rigorously against development of
non-farm uses. In Washington County, the marginal
lands designation is applied to AF-20 properties on
a case-by-case basis, subject to approval of a site-
specific land use application. Of 36 Oregon counties,
only Lane and Washington counties adopted the
provisions of Senate Bill 237 before it was repealed
in 1993 (215.316). As a result, they are the only two
“Marginal Lands Counties” in Oregon today, and
are subject to a different set of state standards than
applied to Oregon’s 34 other counties. As such, it
is not always possible to borrow from standards
implemented by other counties in planning for
Photo courtesy of OSU EESC Lynn Ketchum Washington County.
74 WASHINGTON COUNTY RURAL TOURISM STUDY
