Eugene Planning Commission <br />December 16, 2015 <br />Page 9 <br />Because Condition 12 is ambiguous regarding whether any development <br />(including needed housing) of Tract B is allowed at all, and is not clear and <br />objective, the city cannot apply Condition 12 to prohibit the proposed needed <br />housing, or as a vehicle to subject the proposal to subjective approval standards <br />at LDC 10 2.5.40.04." [Group B at 15 line 1.1 <br />The very same rationale applies here. If the Commission agrees with the staff and the applicant, <br />that the standard is ambiguous, then it will need to choose between two competing <br />interpretations - one that allows the use and one that prohibits the use. In that event the <br />Commission must find that the 19 Lot Rule may not be applied under the statute, as explained in <br />Group B. <br />The Hearings Official attempts to distinguish the Group B LUBA opinion from this application. <br />Decision at 16 para 2. There is no distinction; the holding of Group B is squarely on point. The <br />key holdings from Group B are quoted above. Note that the Hearings Official distinguishes the <br />case because it turned on an ambiguous 1981 condition that applied to the site. However, the <br />City treated the 1981 condition as a "standard;" LUBA explained that the statute applies to both <br />"standards and conditions;" and LUBA explained it is inunaterial whether the standards and <br />conditions are brought forward from previous decisions or are in the current code. <br />The Hearings Official, at page 15 second last para, also incorporates as findings the arguments <br />of the City Attorney in Part II of her November 12 memo. We address those findings here. <br />In Part II.A. the City Attorney says that this application may be denied because it fails to <br />comply with a clear and objective standard. As we have explained above, the standard <br />is not clear and objective. The number 19, of course, is clear, but what it means to <br />"disperse" is ambiguous. Does disperse mean a secondary access is required? Because <br />disperse can have alternate meanings to approve or deny, it is not clear and objective and <br />may not be applied. <br />In Part II.B. the City Attorney says that state law does not require that land in the BLI <br />must be developable in all instances under clear and objective standards; this developer <br />can always apply and take its chances under the general standards. The City Attorney <br />has it backwards; completely backwards. The statute says that the City may only apply <br />standards in a discretionary track if the applicant has the right to develop the site under <br />clear and objective standards. See ORS 197.307(6)(a) quoted above. Here, the only <br />way to allow development under clear and objective standards is to not apply the 19 Lot <br />Rule, whether it is viewed as clear and objective or not. The rationale for this is simple. <br />When the City submitted its Buildable Land Inventory for acknowledgment, it vouched <br />to the state that the BLI lands included enough acres for 20 years of residential <br />development. The City can't tell the state that it is developable and later say that it is <br />not developable. That is what the Hearings Official and the City Attorney are asking the <br />Commission to say here. <br />