Oregon’s statewide Land Use Planning Goals are achieved through local comprehensive planning. State law requires each city and county to adopt a comprehensive plan and the zoning and land use/development ordinances needed to put the plan into effect.
Plans are structured around the state’s Land Use Planning Goals. Each Goal has specific policies that help us achieve the goals. Those policies are put in to action through implementation tools and strategies. Our zoning map and Land Use and Development Ordinance are two example of implementation tools.
We have prepared a short introductory video to help explain what a comprehensive plan is, and how it will help Wasco County:
One of the main goals of Oregon county land use planning is the protection of forest and farm lands. We call these resource zones, and they have some unique rules and regulations to ensure we have farm and forest lands available for productive use for generations to come.
Wasco County’s first Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1983. Since its adoption, we have made some additions and amendments, particularly to our resource zones as state law changed, or we looked for new opportunities to help support agricultural and forest operations.
Some of the information we will be sharing on this blog and out in the public is an assessment of how those policies and implementation tools/strategies helped us achieve goals over the last several decades. We hope that that helps shape revisions to our updated Comprehensive Plan, Wasco County 2040.
As a twenty year long range vision and guide to land use planning in Wasco County, our community’s input is critical. While not all of the rules are eligible for change at the local level, we think that by understanding what and how our community wants to see Wasco County grow over the next twenty years can be achieved through strategic applications of rules and regulations.
We invite you to participate by attending meetings and workshops, submitting comments or feedback, and keeping up to date on the information we share here.