Court of Appeals says development next to Aurora Airport can't go forward

Marion County and the state’s land use board violated state law in approving airport-related business next to the Aurora State Airport, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled for the second time in a year.

In an opinion issued Thursday, the court determined rural land proposed for development being next to a “transportation facility” like an airport doesn’t qualify it for redevelopment into urban scale commercial or industrial development of over 200,000 square feet of hangars and offices. Instead, the state’s land use laws prohibit the development.

It was the second appeal to the Court of Appeals by Joseph Schaefer, the chair of the planning commission for Aurora, and the second time that court sided with him.

“As we explained in our previous opinion, the applied-for development is not part of the airport,” the Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion.

The case has been sent back to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals with a specific determination that Marion County's reason for approving the development is illegal.

Redeveloping the 'church camp'

The 16.5-acre property along Keil Road is next to Aurora State Airport and referred to as the “church camp." At one point it had dozens of buildings and was the Beyond The Reef Theology Center, where pastors were trained to work in Pacific Island nations.

TLM Holdings has developed and owns a number of parcels around the airport. The company, owned by Ted Millar, purchased the church camp property in 2015 for $2.1 million and cleared the buildings and trees.

TLM applied to Marion County for land use approvals to build over 200,000 square feet of hangars and offices and 500 parking spots in the location. It said at the time that the development would add over 100 new jobs.

In October 2020, Marion County commissioners approved the development. But the land is zoned for farm use rather than commercial or airport development.

“The (Oregon Department of Aviation) got told previously just because it’s an airport doesn’t mean you can expand onto ag land without complying with the land use system,” said Ben Williams of Friends of French Prairie, a land use advocacy group in the Aurora area.

The state’s Land use Board of Appeals determined in October 2021 the development was exempt from several of the state’s land use planning goals because the proposed development was classified as an expansion of the public use airport.

But Schaefer, who was joined by land use advocacy group 1000 Friends of Oregon and the City of Aurora in the appeal, argued it didn’t qualify for that exemption as it couldn’t be used by the public, despite the proposed connection to the state-owned airport.

The Court of Appeals in March determined the airport’s map does not show development on that parcel. It also determined the state’s “through the fence” statute doesn't authorize development on rural land.

Second appeal to Court of Appeals

The case was sent back to the Land Use Board of Appeals, which in July determined that proximity to the airport was appropriate because the land was a legal exemption as it was going to be used for airport-related development.

Schaefer appealed that ruling back to the Court of Appeals, saying that decision was in violation of one of the state’s most important land use laws, which prohibits reliance on a transportation facility to justify an exemption to "Goal 3," the law that prohibits urban sprawl around rural freeway interchanges in the state.

“TLM does not explain, nor do we – nor did LUBA – perceive, that the county identified any reason independent of the airport to site the development on that subject parcel,” the opinion says.

“Stated differently, when the airport is removed from the calculus, the county’s reasoning collapses entirely.”

The ruling potentially sets a precedent that commercial development along other transportation areas, such as highways and railroads, generally must occur in cities.

Though the ruling reversed the Land use Board of Appeals ruling, it could be appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Court of Appeals says development near Aurora Airport can't go forward