Remarks by Phil Chang
312 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 13
- Play at 59:53
“Okay. At this time, we will move on to item number six, a public hearing for the Ajaros Plan Amendment and Zone Change of 64 acres at 68589 Highway 20 in your sisters to rezone the property from exclusive farm use to multiple use agricultural.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:00:35
“Right. This is the time and place set for a hearing regarding file numbers 247-26-000120-PA and 121-ZC. This is a hearing on a Deschutes County Comprehensive Plan amendment and zone change request. Staff will outline the hearing procedures that will be followed now.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:04:31
“Does any commissioner have anything to disclose? And if so, please state the nature of same and whether you can proceed.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:05:05
“I have nothing to disclose and I can proceed. At this time, does any party wish to challenge any commissioner based on ex-party contacts, biases, or conflicts? This is probably more relevant for the next hearing, but I would like to raise the question or concern of campaign contributions connected with parties to land use applications and quasi judicial processes. You all may recall that In the last couple of years, I was asked to recuse myself from a quasi-judicial proceeding based on campaign contributions I had received from one of the parties. And I think it does make sense if someone…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:07:05
“Both. I was asked and then I made the choice to do so. I just want to raise that as an example. When I had received a campaign contribution from a party in a quasi-judicial process, I did recuse myself to avoid any appearance of bias. And I think that it's appropriate for all of us to consider the same. We can discuss that further at a later point. I'll put that out there now. And like I said, this may be more relevant in later hearing processes today. But otherwise, as no challenges are presented prior to opening the hearing, does anyone have any procedural objections to the public hearing?…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:15:29
“Thank you for responding to my request for a bigger area map. With zoning, I am not seeing the... I'm not seeing information on the city irrigated property that I asked about. Is there...”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:16:35
“yeah no i saw that i just uh somehow i missed the city piece um okay thank you yeah thank you for providing all that all that information in response to my questions um are there any other questions or general comments before we begin”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:18:23
“All right. If there are no further comments or questions from commissioners, we can begin to take testimony. And the order will be applicant, persons in support, persons in opposition, applicant rebuttal, and then staff closing comments.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:18:50
“I did not. Sorry. uh kim so there was a question when i when i asked about whether um there were biases or conflicts or things like that you know i asked people in the room but okay thank you all right um so let us proceed with testimony from the applicant”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:19:42
“There's a lot to these cases, a lot of paper to get sorted out and organized on the desk.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:20:59
“And just for anyone watching, basically, we're looking at a map that shows the zoning for properties in the vicinity of the subject property of this application.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:45:03
“There's plenty of cord. Yeah, plenty of cord. You can bring it close.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:52:55
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:54:11
“Thank you. At this time, are there any questions for the applicant? I have a few, but you all proceed first.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:54:28
“Okay. Thank you for your testimony. I do have a few questions. I'm trying to get a better sense of what your intended use and development of the land will be. I heard a couple of things. I might have heard a proposed condition for an approval. I also heard no intention to subdivide the property. But then I heard no intentions to subdivide the property beyond, you know, making it into 10-acre lots. So I wanted to get clear on that. But can you just kind of give us a sense of what the intended use of this property is? And, you know, kind of the timing and sequence of land use processes that…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:57:22
“Well, it would require farm use of the property, but you are in a farm worker dwelling is allowable in addition to the primary dwelling on an EFU zone property. So, I mean, there's no pathway. It would require farming, which you're arguing is not feasible on the property.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:58:24
“Putting a couple of the things that you've said together, would you be open to some kind of a condition that said basically one more dwelling you know in in the in the time frame between when this uh when this rezone occurs and when uh the city of sisters is interested in in absorbing this land into the urban growth boundary i'll just acknowledge that's one commissioner's idea here there is a three-person board that that's right it's only it's only my it's only my condition idea and um”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 1:59:29
“Well, I guess I would say that given the pattern of land use decisions of this board of commissioners over the last x years, it may not seem very reasonable. But when the composition of the board of commissioners changes, that may be a very reasonable condition for people to be considering. OK. I do want to get into some questions about the potential farm use of the property. I really appreciate your work with regenerative ranchers, regenerative farmers who are interested in building soil. We do have the challenge locally that in a lot of areas the soil is shallow and doesn't have very much…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:02:33
“I do want to question those estimates. You may be aware that there are, actually it's already passed, There has been legislation passed to allow farmers to explore split duty. So essentially, if you have four acre feet of water per acre of land, in the future, you would be able to... without without extinguishing without sorry without without following that that acre of land you would be able to use only two acre feet and lease the other two acre feet um for various purposes so um there i think it's very possible we will see scenarios in the future where um farmers are farmers have an…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:04:57
“With a drought declaration, you are allowed to seek urgency pumping authority in an extreme drought year like we're experiencing this year. But there has been tremendous investments in and improvements in agricultural water use efficiency in the Three Sisters Irrigation District over the last 15 years, making it feasible for people to get water you know, this is a year where conceivably people would have gotten zero water and they have had a portion of a season, even in an extreme drought year. So it's This year is not necessarily a predictor of future year's water availability for…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:06:58
“Let me assure you that no one is prejudging applications. I take the responsibility to evaluate these applications very seriously. I appreciate that. And that is why I look at all evidence with a critical eye on all sides of any issue.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:07:22
“I have, yeah. I'm sorry that I know something about water in the Deschutes Basin, but you can't unlearn that stuff.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:07:39
“Okay. Like I said, it is part of my job to evaluate evidence critically. I appreciate that. All right. Yeah, those were the key questions I had about agricultural suitability and about just kind of the vision for future land use. Thank you. OK. At this time, we will hear At this time, we will hear testimony from people in support of the application. Is there anyone in the room who would like to testify in support? Kim, are there any hands raised online? Okay. hi i'm neither in support nor position but we're going to take the opportunity to be neutral okay well we were right we were at the…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:12:50
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 2:14:10
“I'll double check if there's anyone else who submitted a blue form who wants to testify during this hearing, please step on up as well.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026