CAMP SHERMAN – Every morning, Lee Farm drives his 1930 Model A Ford a mile or so from his house over to the Camp Sherman Store for his daily coffee. Farm, 76, sits in front on a bench that looks down on the Metolius River, chatting the day away with other locals and with tourists who come in to buy wine or bread they forgot to pack.

It’s an old-fashioned lifestyle. Farm wouldn’t live any other way.

”I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t do this,” he said Monday.

Camp Sherman has historically held a special place in Jefferson County. Tucked among pine trees, the 200-person community is about a 90-minute drive from the county seat of Madras. It’s unique enough to have its own 50-page appendix in county land use rules.

But now those rules are being amended. Local conservation groups are worried plans to change Jefferson County’s land use rules could allow too much growth in the sparsely populated region northwest of Sisters and open the door to the county’s first destination resort.

Jefferson County adopted its comprehensive plan in 1981. The plan has been amended at least twice since then.

The county recently issued draft revisions to its comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances – the two documents that govern land use. Combined, they total hundreds of pages. But two words – destination resorts – have drawn the most attention.

”If Jefferson County wanted to do one thing that would make their process as controversial as possible, it would be to allow zoning in the Metolius Basin for destination resorts,” said Paul Dewey, head of the conservation group Central Oregon Landwatch.

The area is currently rustic and largely undeveloped. The Metolius River’s rainbow and bull trout have made its fishing opportunities famous. The undeveloped forests surrounding Camp Sherman serve as habitat for deer, and the Metolius is protected as a federal Wild and Scenic River, Dewey noted.

Camp Sherman resident Chuck Pyle said he doesn’t like the people who live in the resorts, either.

”Those people come over with all of their money and they try to change the community,” Pyle said.

But Jefferson County – where wages and growth lag behind Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, could use some of that money, said Planning Commissioner Dick Dodson.

”I think Jefferson County is ready for a destination resort,” said Dodson, a Madras real estate agent and lifelong resident. ”People come in for the weekend or a week and stay there and spend money and leave. If they’re done correctly, they’re a positive thing in the community, as far as I’m concerned.”

The county has never before allowed destination resorts. Under the draft comprehensive plan, the developments would be allowed in two areas on either side of Camp Sherman.

One area is Green Ridge, east of the Metolius, where the Colson family, of Salem, owns a large tract of land. The other site sits on the western edge of the Metolius Basin.

Resorts could also be allowed in eastern Jefferson County near Madras, past the Deer Ridge prison site.

A public hearing on the draft plan is scheduled for Saturday in Crooked River Ranch. Camp Sherman residents have also planned a public meeting that day, at 6:30 p.m. in the fire hall.

The county is also proposing easing limits on development for homes on nonirrigated farmland, rangeland and ”lot of record” parcels that have been owned by the same person since 1985.

The changes still must be approved by the county planning commission and the Jefferson County Commission before they become law.

Dewey, the attorney who is head of the conservation group, said he hopes that doesn’t happen.

”Historically, Jefferson County has been one of the most protective counties in the state, with their protections for farmland, rangeland and forest habitat really exceeding what state law requires,” Dewey said. ”We’d hate to see an erosion of those protections.”

In addition to Dewey’s group, the plan has also drawn interest from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, 1000 Friends of Oregon and Friends of the Metolius, although none have publicly commented on it.

Jefferson County Community Development Director Chris Gannon said some residents resent interference from out-of-county interest groups, especially after Deschutes and Crook counties have profited from their resorts.

”In terms of the economy in Jefferson County, we’re trailing the other two counties on just about every level,” Gannon said. ”It is a little bit offensive that they want us to continue to be the poor dirt farmers.”

However, an update to the currently vague rules was long overdue, said Gordon Jones, owner of the Lake Creek Lodge resort in Camp Sherman. Jones and Jefferson County spent years wrangling with Camp Sherman-based conservation group Friends of the Metolius over the size and type of cabins Jones could build at his resort.

”We would’ve known exactly what we could and couldn’t do,” under the new rules, Jones said. ”Having been through a long protracted land use process, it was apparent to me there was a need to clarify language.”

Friends of the Metolius has won repeated appeals to the state Land Use Board of Appeals in the case, effectively limiting development at Lake Creek Lodge. The group hasn’t submitted comments to Jefferson County, but it will, said President Gregory McClarren.

”We are continuing to review the proposed changes, which are extremely significant,” said McClarren, who added that his group hasn’t taken a position on the draft.

Jones, who sits on the planning commission’s citizen advisory committee, said opponents should consider the merits of new rules before blasting them.

”I think we need to give the county the benefit of the doubt, go through the public process and make sure the plan they’re proposing is well thought out,” he said.

For his part, Farm, the Camp Sherman Model A owner, was philosophical when asked if he objected to the proposed changes.

”I do,” said Farm, sporting a Camp Sherman cap, ”but you can’t stop progress.”