For those of you who might have missed this article in The Dalles Chronicle... effecting many of our remote moiser property owners.
County invokes code rules-County attaches violation notice to rural land deed
Owners of a rural Wasco County property were found in violation of a county code rule that prohibits dwellings or trailers to stay in the forest zone for more than 60 days.
Wasco County Court commissioners, acting in their role as code compliance hearings officers, voted unanimously to record the violation notice on the deed for the property, owned by Terrie and Robert Bryce of Oregon City.
Terrie Bryce, contacted this week, said she and her husband disagree with the county's actions. She said the trailers on her property have wheels and thus are moveable, she said.
"These are not permanent structures," she said.
Keith Cleveland, Wasco County code compliance officer, said Bryce's statement was "a common misconception."
"It doesn't matter if it has wheels," he said. "Even an RV, if you keep it there longer than 60 days, it becomes a dwelling."
Last week's vote by the county commissioners represents the first enforcement action of its kind under the five-month-old Wasco County code compliance and nuisance abatement ordinance.
The county's prior code compliance rules were covered by chapters within a county land use ordinance and a National Scenic Area land use ordinance. The new ordinance supersedes the two chapters and sets up a separate code compliance and enforcement process.
In addition to attaching a violation notice to a deed, other potential penalties for illegal dwellings in the new law include fines up to the cost of the structures, or liens on the property to pay the fines or cover the cost of removing the dwellings.
Cleveland said the violation notice will be attached to the Bryce property's deed as the first level of enforcement action.
"We want any future owners of the property to know about it, so as to keep the violation from being passed on to future owners," he said.
Bryce's land, off Ketchum Road in a forest zone, contains several construction-type trailers, Cleveland said. He told the commissioners that he first contacted the Bryce family on April 23, following with notices or warnings on May 28, June 15, Sept. 29 and Nov. 2 - all without resolution. Each notice or warning also offered the Bryces the opportunity to appeal.
Terrie Bryce said she and her husband have had health and financial issues in recent months and have had to relocate. She said she had not seen any notices after the initial one on April 23, and had no word on whether her husband had seen any either.
Bryce, who said she was disabled, said she and her husband lost their home in Portland this year due to foreclosure. They were eventually able to relocate to a rented mobile home on her sister's property in Oregon City, but that they were hoping to be able to store their belongings at the Wasco County property.
"Why can't we leave what we have there?" Bryce said. "We pay taxes for a buildable property."
She said she felt like she was "drowning" in the legal morass. "I feel like with all these government and state laws they have up there, that they can railroad you," she said.
Cleveland said the goal of the illegal dwellings code is to protect citizens in the rural areas.
"We have no services up there, such as emergency services - fire and police - or sewage disposal," Cleveland said. "It creates a hazard up there if people try to live up there - lighting fires, disposing of sewage and things like that."
Recreational use, such as during hunting season or weekends, is permitted, he said.
Cleveland said he has processed other cases of illegal dwellings where he has sent warnings about potential fines. Those cases were resolved without any fines being imposed, he said.
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