The Oregon Court of Appeals has turned back a challenge to Deschutes County’s destination resorts map brought by a local conservation group.

Central Oregon Landwatch had challenged the county’s map, claiming state law does not allow the county to bestow resort designation on multiple pieces of property under different ownership for the purpose of creating a single resort.

The Court of Appeals upheld a finding by the state Land Use Board of Appeals, which heard Central Oregon Landwatch’s previous challenge to the county’s map.

Under state land use law, counties must identify properties suitable for the development of resorts, avoiding lands that include, among other things, high-value farmland or sensitive big-game habitat.

Undecided on appeal

Paul Dewey, executive director of Central Oregon Landwatch, said he would have to closely study the court’s ruling before deciding on his options for an appeal, though he maintained the state law requires consolidated ownership for the development of a resort.

State law requires resorts to construct overnight lodging, recreational facilities and other amenities. Dewey said with multiple owners, individual owners can avoid responsibility for building the costly resort improvements and instead focus on selling residential lots.

“We think that the statute calls for a single owner,” Dewey said. “The policy reason for this is shown in the experience with the Tetherow resort, where there’s fragmented ownership. It makes it very difficult to make sure the facility actually functions like a resort should.”

Deschutes County commissioners recently granted Tetherow, located west of Bend on Century Drive, its third one-year extension to begin construction on overnight lodging.

Prior to the decision, county planners remarked that the resort’s multiple owners were making it difficult to determine which parties are responsible for completing the improvements that distinguish a resort from a subdivision.

“The resorts around here are building up quite a record of delaying, making money off the residential lot sales and then delaying the required resort infrastructure development,” Dewey said.

Deschutes County, Sunriver Resort Limited Partnership and Belveron Real Estate Partners LLC, a California group with an interest in a piece of land south of Sunriver near Vandervert Road, were all named as respondents to Central Oregon Landwatch’s case. Matthew Cyrus, whose family has been seeking resort designation for land it owns near Sisters, was also named in the case.

Peter Gutowsky, principal planner with the Deschutes County Community Development Department, said the county welcomed the ruling. Commissioners are considering a new map that would shrink the area where destination resorts can be considered from 112,000 acres to 22,000 acres, Gutowsky said, a process that could have been derailed had the court ruled the other way.

Gutowsky said the issues Dewey has raised concerning delays in constructing overnight lodging and other resort amenities have no bearing on whether a property should be considered for inclusion on the destination resorts map.

Deschutes County Commissioners will meet Sept. 19 to take additional testimony on the proposed changes to the destination resorts map.