PUBLIC MINING ROAD REJECTED
North of Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge, just inside the National Scenic Area boundary, lies the Zimmerly property, site of the largest and longest-running land use violations in the history of the National Scenic Area. A veritable tsunami of litigation involving the Zimmerly property commenced in 2017, when illegal gravel mining was started in defiance of National Scenic Area rules and in disobedience of multiple enforcement orders issued by Clark County and Columbia River Gorge Commission staff.
Eventually, numerous cases were resolved in favor of Friends and government agencies, and against the mining violators, by multiple courts. In 2023, Friends prevailed in 12 out of 12 court cases, appeals, and contested motions against Zimmerly.
So far in 2024, Friends’ legal victories involving the Zimmerly property have continued. In January, after hearing from Friends, the Gorge Commission declined a request by Zimmerly’s attorney to include in the Commission’s 2024–25 work plan the consideration of a potential amendment to the Gorge Management Plan that would have relaxed the rules for maintaining existing mining uses in the National Scenic Area.
And at a public hearing on July 16, 2024, the Clark County Council unanimously rejected Zimmerly’s
request to convert the privately owned SE 356th Avenue into a county-owned public mining haul road. During the county’s three-year-long review process, Friends and allies repeatedly called out Zimmerly’s request as a “Trojan horse loaded with problems,” since Zimmerly was attempting to pass numerous hidden costs, liabilities, and obligations on to the county along with the proposed transfer of the road.
In July, the Clark County Council unanimously rejected Zimmerly’s request to convert SE 356th Avenue, shown here during illegal operations in 2018, into a publicly owned mining haul road. Photo by Peter Cornelison.
Clark County Council Chair Gary Medvigy summed it up best, remarking that the requested road dedication “is not going to be a public benefit.” All five council members voted to reject the road dedication.
Unfortunately, the legal battles involving this notorious mining operation are far from over. Recently, Zimmerly filed yet another land use application with Clark County seeking mining permits on the property, even though the prior land use application, submitted in 2020, is currently on appeal at the Gorge Commission. That pending appeal will be argued this winter. Zimmerly has also filed legal claims against multiple neighboring owners of SE 356th Avenue in an effort to seize their portions of the road through adverse possession. Thus, the litigation will continue into 2025.
Learn More About the Illegal Mine
COURT UPHOLDS FRIENDS’ LEGAL VICTORIES PROTECTING GORGE FARMLAND
On May 1, 2024, Clark County Superior Court Judge Derek J. Vanderwood issued a final judgment in an appeal brought by development company Norway Green, LLC. The court upheld Friends’ prior legal victories protecting Gorge farmland, thus bringing nearly three years of litigation to a close. Not only did Friends win in all three levels of appeal over that three-year period, we actually improved our legal position each time.
In the first two rounds, both the Clark County Land Use Hearing Examiner, and then the Gorge Commission on appeal, rejected Norway Green’s proposal to build a massive “non-farm dwelling” in an existing pasture on a parcel of land zoned Large-Scale Agriculture and located on SE Gibson Road in the National Scenic Area. The project would have permanently converted prime Gorge farmland to residential use, in direct violation of the National Scenic Area Act and its implementing rules.
Norway Green appealed the Gorge Commission’s decision to the Superior Court, arguing that its parcel is predominantly unsuitable for agriculture merely because part of the parcel is currently forested, and asserting that Clark County and the Gorge Commission had unconstitutionally taken property rights from Norway Green and should be required to pay monetary damages to the developer.
Friends’ legal victories will help protect prime farmland not only on the Norway Green property, pictured here, but throughout the entire National Scenic Area. Photo by Monique Trevett, Friends of the Columbia Gorge.
Friends helped Clark County and the Gorge Commission defend their decisions from Norway Green’s meritless claims. In its decision, the superior court agreed with multiple legal arguments raised by Friends, including a ruling that commercial forestry and commercial agriculture “are inherently compatible with each other, both in fact and under the law.” In other words, just because a landowner is currently producing timber from a particular piece of land, that does not mean the same land could not also be suitable for agricultural production.
Ultimately, the court upheld the prior rulings of the Gorge Commission and Clark County that Norway Green had failed to demonstrate that the parcel is predominantly unsuitable for agriculture, and therefore was not entitled to build a non-farm dwelling on the parcel. Norway Green did not appeal the court decision.
Friends’ victory in the superior court enshrines the precedent we previously achieved at the Gorge Commission. This will help protect farmland throughout the Scenic Area from similar development schemes.
With the help of our members, supporters, and allies, Friends will continue to defend the Gorge from land use violators, developers seeking to create illegal loopholes in the Scenic Area rules, and meritless litigation—in Clark County and beyond.