OWA Continues Discussions with Governor's Land Use Stakeholder Group and AVAs to Achieve Consensus

Over the past three months OWA has continued to represent the views of membership in a series of meetings convened to discuss commercial activity on farmland. The working group meetings include a broad range of interested parties and are chaired by Governor Kitzhaber's Natural Resources Advisor Richard Whitman. The group has been working to find consensus on sunset provisions of HB 3280 leading into the 2013 Oregon Legislative Session.  Attending on behalf of your Board have been OWA Land Use Committee Chairman and OWA Vice-President Bill Sweat, OWA President Emeritus Michael Donovan and OWA Board member Sam Tannahill. As noted in the last Land Use Bulletin on October 15, the legislative concepts unanimously adopted by the OWA Board on September 11 were presented to the working group on September 17 and have served an important role in framing the discussions. OWA's two land use surveys and statewide Listening Tour feedback have also helped OWA's Board representatives articulate membership positions. The working group is expected to meet at least one more time before the Oregon State Legislature convenes its general session on February 4 with the goal of introducing legislative language agreed to by all stakeholders. 

Concurrently OWA has also been working with the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, Southern Oregon Wineries Association, Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, Winegrowers Association of Central Oregon, and the Columbia Gorge Winegrowers to find a path that will allow the Oregon wine industry to speak with a unified voice and present a common position to the Governor's land use working group and the Oregon State Legislature.  
  
As part of the effort, your OWA Board voted unanimously on Dec. 10 to further clarify OWA's position on the 18 special event days as follows. Special event days 1-6 will be subject to an administrative process, allowing the county to impose conditions as outlined in OWA's Legislative Concept 2. These first six events would not be subject to a local appeal and would not be a land use decision. This is a safe harbor for wineries that may want to hold an event from time to time. A special events license allowing 7-18 event days would be subject to the same administrative process, but would be treated as a land use decision subject to public notice and the opportunity for a local appeal. A final local decision would be appealable to the Land Use Board of Appeals. The OWA Board also agreed that all wineries on land zoned exclusively for farm-use, including wineries that secure conditional use permits, should be subject to the 25% income limitation outlined in Legislative Concept 3. OWA positions, adopted unanimously by your Board in Sept., which clarified marketing vs. non-marketing events and food service, remain unchanged.    
 
OWA hopes to receive endorsements from AVA's around the state in the coming weeks.

This is interesting news considering the recent numbers released by Silicon Valley Bank regarding statistics within our industry in 2012. A special thank you to our locals, Michael Donovan & others for representing the interests of Southern Oregon.