On the afternoon of Sept. 21 K & B Family Limited Partnership attorney Rahn Hostetter filed a petition for judicial review to the Oregon Court of Appeals, appealing a Sept. 3 Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals opinion concerning the 61-acre Marr Property located between Joseph and Wallowa Lake.

LUBA remanded a decision to Wallowa County, saying it needed more information before ruling on an 11-parcel preliminary plat subdivision application.

“We have discovered a clear error in LUBA’s opinion,” Hostetter said.

The Enterprise attorney said that LUBA had remanded assignments of error using the argument that the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners had failed to provide for public review of preliminary plat decisions. Hostetter pointed to condition 12 of the Marr Subdivision findings that says, “Since the preliminary plat is conditionally approved, the Final Plat and accompanying materials submitted by the applicant, shall be subject to public hearing review by the Wallowa County Planning Commission to assure that the conditions of approval have been adequately met.”

Wallowa County Planning Director Bill Oliver, who agreed with Hostetter, said, “LUBA either missed it or didn’t give us the reasons why it was wrong.”

Oliver said that wording providing for public hearing review had been purposefully placed into the findings because of the Manuel dwelling decision at Wallowa Lake in 1997 which had been remanded because no criteria was included for future public review.

“I don’t know how to do it better,” said Oliver.