The future of a proposed private airstrip west of Redmond Airport is in limbo after it was denied approval because of its potential impacts to surrounding farmland.

In September, Alex Polvi, a Deschutes County resident, submitted an application to build a dirt airstrip on his 123-acre property off Harper Road west of U.S. Highway 97 between Tumalo and Redmond. The airstrip would sit roughly 6 miles away from Redmond Airport and measure 2,000 feet long.

The proposal drew mixed reactions, with many neighbors testifying they supported Polvi’s project and found the extra noise from his airplane would be negligible compared to the planes that already fly overhead from Redmond Airport, and with others arguing the airstrip would disrupt the people and wildlife of the area.

A hearings officer decided in March that Polvi did not do enough to prove that his project wouldn’t affect surrounding farm and forest lands, or that the project wouldn’t significantly increase the cost of farm and forest practices in the surrounding area.

Last week, the Deschutes County Commission decided not to hear the appeal of the hearings officer’s decision, mostly because the grounds upon which the proposal was denied is based on a state statute rather than a local, county code.

It is unclear whether the application will be appealed to the state Land Use Board of Appeals, also known as LUBA. If it is not appealed, the denial will stick and Polvi will not be allowed to build the airstrip.

“I’m weighing the pros and cons, but I haven’t made a decision yet,” Polvi said Friday.

While Polvi identified nearby properties with agricultural activities, the hearings officer argued he did not do enough to include descriptions of the farm practices on surrounding properties, or give explanations as to how the airstrip won’t change or drive up the cost of those practices.

“It is quite possible that the proposed airstrip can satisfy the farm impacts test,” Tom Brooks, the hearings officer for this case, wrote in his decision. “However, as I understand LUBA’s and the courts’ application of that test, satisfaction of that test must focus on the impacts to farm practices rather than on the compatibility with farm uses.”

It is also unclear whether Nunzie Gould, a Deschutes County resident who also appealed the hearings officer’s decision but for reasons concerning impacts to wildlife, will appeal to LUBA. Her attorney, Jennifer Bragar, declined to comment when asked to elaborate on the appeal.

The denial is a win for groups like Central Oregon LandWatch, which opposed the airstrip proposal due to its potential impacts to wildlife including mule deer and golden eagles. The airstrip was proposed near particularly beautiful landscapes that are home to lots of recreation and fishing, said Carol Macbeth, an attorney with LandWatch.

The land use advocacy organization also argued the applicant did not prove his project wouldn’t impact surrounding farm uses.

“We agree with that decision, and we’re glad that it stands,” Macbeth said Thursday.

The appeal filed by Gould, which essentially argued the hearings officer should have denied the application for more reasons than he did, included a petition of roughly 400 signatures of people who were against the proposal.

Macbeth said the majority of those signatures were from people who recreate in the nearby Maston Recreation Area.

Bragar, Gould’s attorney, declined a request for comment to discuss their appeal further.

Polvi, the applicant, said he cares deeply about the wildlife and natural beauty of the area, which is why he chooses to live where he does, and cited the fact that both the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Fish Wildfire did not express any concerns about his airstrip.

Not disrupting his neighbors was also a priority to him, Polvi said, which is why he reached out to his immediate neighbors to see if they would be OK with his proposed airstrip. He said anyone who would be “truly impacted” did not object to the project.

Polvi said the state’s land use law is too subjective, which he thinks enabled the denial.

“I’d like to see Oregon make their laws more objective, so they can’t be used arbitrarily by people in power,” Polvi said.