The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners has derailed efforts by the county's planning commission and others to create a commercial business overlay that would have placed restrictions on so-called "formula businesses" in the county. 

The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners has pulled the plug on work by the county planning commission to create a commercial development overlay that would have required so-called “formula businesses” to meet certain criteria before being approved in unincorporated areas of the county.

A memo from the county commissioners that was read to the planning board at the start of its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 29, was to the point: “We direct the Wallowa County Planning Commission to cease developing a formula store overlay,” it read in part. “Thank you for your attention and cooperation.”

Planning Director Franz Goebel, who read the memo to the planning board, said it had been signed by all three county commissioners, John Hillock, Todd Nash and Susan Roberts.

Goebel said the order to the planning board came in the wake of a meeting between the county commissioners and counsel. Goebel said the lawyers had concerns about whether the proposed commercial development overlay was constitutional. In addition, he said, the commissioners thought the issue was more properly handled at the city level, and not through the county, since the overlay would apply only to unincorporated land in the county.

In a brief interview on Wednesday, Oct. 30, Hillock confirmed that those were the county commissioners’ main concerns about the proposal.

Planning Commission Chair Jim Nave said at the meeting that the planning board members had not the memo until the day of the meeting.

Nave said at the meeting that he was “a little disappointed that the Board of Commissioners didn’t recognize the amount of work that’s gone in over the last year to this ordinance. We’ve heard the public, we held multiple workshops and I’m just confused why the process is being stopped. … It really does leave me in a position of wondering what the role of this planning commission is, if we’re going to hear from the public, develop land use ordinances and then be ignored.”

Nave said he was grateful for the work by the planning commission and by the members of the public who had worked on the ordinance.

Public advocates of the ordinance were dismayed by the commissioners’ action.

A press release from the No Dollar General Coalition, a group that formed in an attempt to stop a Dollar General store from opening on the outskirts of Wallowa, said the commissioners’ action “dismisses a critical opportunity to protect locally owned businesses, a pillar of Wallowa County’s economy, and is a failure to protect the county’s long-term economic sustainability.”

The planning board and members of the public have been working on the overlay proposal for months, in the wake of the controversy surrounding the Wallowa Dollar General store. After the Dollar General opened, the Joseph City Council passed a measure barring formula stores from opening in the city commercial zone.

The proposed county measure defines “formula business” as one that maintains “standardized services, décor, uniforms, architecture, or other features that make it virtually identical to businesses elsewhere.”

Under the proposed overlay, such a formula business would have had to demonstrate “social and economic value to the county, its citizens and visitors” before winning approval. Applicants would have had to show, for example, that the proposed business “fulfills a specific, identified need within the community.”

The ordinance would have required any proposed formula business applicant to demonstrate that it would also contribute to the economic vitality of the community “by stimulating local economic growth and creating new employment opportunities.”

In the interview on Wednesday, Hillock said he believes the regulation of formula businesses is a matter for cities to handle.

“I think there’s very little ground in the county that qualifies for commercial-type businesses that would fit that category,” he said. “If the city of Joseph wanted to do that, I was OK with it. I don’t think that the county really needs to do it, because there’s just not that much available land.”

Hillock said that county counsel, during the meeting with the county commissioners, raised the issue of whether the overlay was constitutional. He said the attorneys told the commissioners that “we were going to open up a can of worms if we approve” the measure.

No member of the Board of Commissioners attended Tuesday’s meeting of the planning board; Hillock said county counsel generally discourages attendance at similar meetings to avoid potential later conflicts of interest.

But advocates of the overlay said they were planning to press the matter with the county commissioners and make the case for the measure.

As Erika Polmar, a small-business owner in Wallowa County who helped develop the proposal, said at Tuesday’s meeting: “So let’s not have this be the end. It is really the beginning of another battle, and I hope you all join me on it.”