By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
A Lincoln County circuit judge has denied a request by a prominent Yachats businesswoman seeking to keep a development of four yurts and a travel trailer on 20 acres of property she owns off Starr Creek Road just north of Yachats.
Judge Marcia Buckley ruled last week that Lincoln County is correct in saying the dwellings erected by Linda Hetzler and her husband, Thomas Smith, are not needed to do forestry work on the property and that a septic system for the development violates health rules.
The county is now preparing an order for Buckley to sign to remove the structures. Hetzler and Smith own the popular Drift Inn restaurant and motel and related businesses in Yachats.
Hetzler and her attorney, Russell Baldwin, made a series of filings that disputed a February decision by Judge Sheryl Bachart, who ruled that the development violated zoning ordinances. Hetzler represented herself earlier this year but retained Baldwin for the challenges and Bachart subsequently assigned the case to Buckley because of previous conflicts with the attorney.
Baldwin and assistant county counsel Douglas Holbrook filed pages of arguments over the summer. Baldwin argued that Hetzler was immune from county zoning and other rules under Oregon’s forest practices act, that the county lacked jurisdiction, and that temporary structures like the yurts and RV are allowed under state rules.
The county’s attorney argued zoning for the land – timber conservation — allows for just one structure and that Hetzler expanded the septic system to handle the development without county approval.
Buckley heard 45 minutes of oral arguments Sept. 20 and in a four-page ruling Wednesday upheld Bachart’s rulings from February.
“It appears that defendants seek to relitigate the declaratory relief previously granted by Judge Bachart,” Buckley wrote in denying the challenges. “This court is not going to modify that previously ordered by Judge Bachart.”
Buckley also denied a motion by Hetzler and Baldwin to prohibit county inspectors from going on to the property and told the two sides to designate a time to do that. If they can’t, Buckley said she would do it for them.
Issue started in 2021
The dispute between Hetzler, Smith and the county started when they erected housing on a 20-acre parcel they bought in 2021 and connected the structures to a septic system serving a former manufactured home.
There were six people living on the property in August, Hetzler said in an appeal affidavit. She said the thinning work of the property’s trees would take about 15 years which is “the approximate useful life of the temporary structures providing eating and sleeping quarters for workers at the forest camp.”
The 20-acre property where the work is being done is zoned as “timber conservation” meaning it is allowed one residential dwelling under county zoning ordinances and state land-use rules. Hetzler and Smith also own an adjacent 15-acre parcel also in a timber conservation zone.
In her ruling last February, Bachart said her decision focused on a “very narrow legal issue” as to whether the complex violated zoning and septic rules. The judge said it was clear to her that the complex was not a temporary forest camp and that the county’s exhibits showed the yurts and trailer “meet the definition of a dwelling, clearly.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
Previous stories on the issue:
August 2023: Go here
October 2023: Go here
February 2024: Go here
Why not just purchase correctly zoned property if she wanted to put in rentals? $550k was mis-managed and now she’s charging people to live in squaller.
This is wrong, considering the housing shortage.
The ruling is right, housing shortage or not. You can’t just allow anybody to build anything wherever they want. That’s why we have zoning and land use laws. Imagine the chaos that would occur without them if people could build anything anywhere. Just because there’s poverty doesn’t justify people committing robbery. They need to compete just like any other business by following the law, not trying to get an unfair advantage by ignoring it.
Might be chaotic but if we truly owned our land, we should be able to build what we want. Just another area where we see we are not really free in USA.
I totally agree with you, Lee. Freedom has nothing to do with land use planning and the resultant zoning laws. Land use decisions involve the community. If you don’t care for how things are being planned use your time to get involved.
Totally agree
The fact is zoning is land-use group theft, if someone puts their own land in conservation then sells it it’s one thing to restrict future use. If the government says an area is now only allowed one type of development it is group theft. It is nothing but selfishness. Just a bunch of rich people telling the poor people they can’t live in their communities.
Hear here
That is complete nonsense. The properties they own were zoned timber conservation when they bought them so they knew that only one dwelling per parcel was allowed. Nobody changed the zoning or stole any potential land use from these people.
Those of you complaining about zoning and land use laws should think about your own neighborhood and how you would feel if someone decided to build a factory next to your home in violation of land use laws.
First thing is for the owner of the property to apply for a zoning change to residential. But for now the dwellings must be removed and the added drain field inspected and approved or also removed. Second back taxes should be collected for residential use instead of the forest reserve exemption.
Under Oregon law, rezoning a Timber Conservation zoned parcel is very difficult, expensive and highly unlikely to happen in this case.
I applaud Lincoln County for not allowing the creation by business owners of sleazy migrant camps. As reported by Yachats News, the Fireside Motel and Overleaf Lodge built tiny homes for their employees, and they did it right.
https://yachatsnews.com/it-took-awhile-and-cost-a-lot-of-money-but-yachats-motels-new-tiny-homes-and-rv-park-for-employees-have-their-first-occupants/