Dear Secretary Veneman,

 

The Gorge Commission is about to adopt a revised management plan that is only partially reviewed.  Because of staff and budget limitations, not all of the sections of the management plan were addressed in the revised plan.  This is contrary to the scenic area act, which stipulates that the plan be reviewed at least once every 10 years but not less than 5 years after adoption. [Section 6(g)].

 

It is important that you NOT delegate the responsibility to concur to the Forest Service Region 6 Forester, as is being contemplated.  I would encourage you to make a condition of concurrence that the entire plan review be made no later than September of 2007, which is 15 years (10 + 5) from the date of adoption.  If you do not do this, then we may not see a complete review for at least 10 years, and probably it will be longer given the history so far.

 

I am pasting a letter I hand delivered to the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area Manager this morning for your information.  You can also learn more about how devastating this will be to Gorge landowners if an incomplete revised plan is adopted by the Gorge Commission and then concurred with by you.  Simply go to our website at www.AdvocatesOfCommonSense.com. 

 

Thank you very much for your consideration of this very critical matter.

 

Steven B. Andersen

541/478-0500

Steven@CascadePlanning.com

 

The letter to NSA Mgr Dan Harkenrider is pasted below:

 

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April 12, 2004

 

Dan Harkenrider, Area Manager

USDA USFS Columbia Gorge NSA

Hood River, OR 97031                                            Hand Delivery

 

Re:       Secretary of Agriculture’s role in concurring with an “incomplete” management plan for the

Columbia River Gorge

 

First, I thank you for providing me an opportunity to meet with you this morning.  As you know, I am the principal of Cascade Planning Associates.  Cascade Planning was founded in 1987 to provide technical land use planning assistance in the Columbia Gorge.  As you probably also know by now, Advocates Of Common Sense (AOCS), is a fledgling organization of property owners and their friends who advocate the exercise of common sense in land use planning.  You can visit our websites at www.AdvocatesOfCommonSense.com and www.advocates-of-common-sense.com.  AOCS is a direct result of the Gorge Commission’s action to keep the door closed to the plan amendment application process.  Compounding the problems for Gorge landowners with this issue is the Gorge Commission’s “incomplete” review of its Management Plan. 

 

Members of this group, my clients and others, are seriously impacted by this closed door and the Commission’s incomplete review because corrections that should have been made to the management plan in its 10-year review, are not being made and we are unable to access the plan amendment process to have these corrections addressed.  Given this history, we are concerned that revisions may never be made.   For example, owners of  lands designated public recreation (PR) are unable to develop anything but a single-family home, whereas if the same property is sold to a public agency, that agency can develop recreational uses.  We believe this is a denial of our rights under the U.S. Constitution to due process, equal protection, and the pursuit of happiness.   By keeping the door closed, and by not addressing this issue in the revised management plan, the Commission is causing a true hardship on certain property owners.  This is unequal treatment that could be corrected by the Secretary of Agriculture if she would not concur with the revised plan if it is sent to her in an incomplete form.

 

We would appreciate your support in seeing that this injustice is addressed if it becomes necessary.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to address this issue with you today,

 

 

Steven B. Andersen

 

cc:        Mark Rey, USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources & Environment

            Linda Goodman, Region 6 Forester