A 59-lot housing development east of Prineville has the green light again.

Crook County officials approved the development Wednesday after the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court to stop it. The state has 60 days to again appeal the county’s decision.

Developer Shelley Hudspeth said she plans to move ahead with plans for the 300-acre rural housing development, barring another appeal from the state. She has been waiting for more than four years for the courts to decide if she has the right finish the project.

The Crook County Court’s decision Wednesday hinged on how much Hudspeth has already invested in the project.

Hudspeth started work on the development under Measure 37, a 2004 initiative that expanded property owners’ rights to develop their land. The initiative allowed her to build a housing development on farmland outside the city’s urban growth boundary because such a development would have been allowed by land-use laws when she took ownership of the property in 1965.

But Measure 49, a 2007 initiative, curtailed Measure 37. It allowed property owners to continue their Measure 37 developments only if they had already vested in the project.

Ed Fitch, an attorney for Hudspeth, said she has already spent about $900,000 on roads, wells, engineering and an entrance gate for the development. The total cost of the development, excluding value of homes, was estimated at $5 million.

The state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court ruled that Hudspeth needed to include the cost of homes in the total cost of the development and sent the case back to the county.

Back at the county court, the state contended that Hudspeth had not spend enough on the project to be considered vested, based on an average home price of about $220,000.

Fitch argued that Hudspeth was vested in the projected, based on an average home price of $150,000 to $170,000.

“We believe the estimates we submitted were more in line with reality than some dry statistics from the state,” Fitch said.

The county agreed and accepted Hudspeth’s estimates. County Commissioner Seth Crawford said he believed Hudspeth’s estimates from local contractors were more accurate than the state’s estimates, which were based more on the home prices in Bend.

County Judge Mike McCabe said the development would bring in needed property tax revenue to the county. He said he has no problem with the housing project being built on exclusive farm use land because it abuts the city’s urban growth boundary and the homes would be on two- to three-acre plots of irrigated land.

Hudspeth, a teacher from Hillsboro, said it was absurd for the state to spend so much time and money fighting the development.

The county court approved Hudspeth’s development in 2008 but the state appealed to the circuit court. The circuit court sided with Hudspeth and the state appealed again, sending the case on to the appeals court and eventually the state Supreme Court.