GOLD BEACH – Curry County Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to scrap the Mixed Use Master Plan zone (MUMPz) that has been in the works since 2007 and start over.

“I hope you move ahead and get a plan to define what we can and what we can’t do,” developer Leroy Blodgett told the commissioners.

“I would like to see us come up with a new master zone ordinance that meets the right criteria so we can get on to do it the right way,” Commissioner Bill Waddle said.

“If the board proceeds not to approve this, what would be a reasonable timetable,” Commissioner George Rhodes asked county planners.

“January is reasonable,” Planning Manager Jeni Meyer said. “But we need more directions. I would want to have something that says this is what you did and didn’t like.”

Rhodes asked County Counsel Jerry Herbage if the whole thing needed to be sent back to the County Planning Commission.

“It’s optional,” Herbage said.

He said the county would have to give a 45-day notice to both the state and Brookings.

County Planning Director David Pratt said the planning staff would be busy.

“I’m concerned we have a number of hearings coming up and we have a number of holidays coming up. I’m trying to get a feeling,” Pratt said.

Rhodes said the matter would be placed on the board’s Dec. 7 meeting agenda.

“No decision, no hearing. We’ll set a timetable to give staff some direction. That’s what the board will do to give staff some direction. I would encourage people to contact the commissioners and give them input,” Rhodes said.

“We need to move forward and develop a reasonable master plan for development,” he said.

The commissioners held a two-hour public hearing a month ago on the latest revision of the county’s plan for development in Brookings’ Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). No one who spoke at that hearing favored adopting without changes the proposal to limit what kind of business can be opened in residential developments and where they could be located.

The proposal would no longer includes Port Orford and Gold Beach UGBs. Planning Director David Pratt said it would currently primarily cover Harbor Hills and Jack’s Creek areas.

Most of those present at the October hearing were Harbor residents, who contend that much of Harbor Hills isn’t suitable for development.

“I find it hard to believe we are wasting time on this ill-conceived plan,” Ralph Martin, chairman of the Harbor Community Action Committee, told the commissioners.

“When we started this process, we preferred the city’s ordinance,” said Blodgett, who has worked with Harbor developer HW3. “However, the Planning staff has done a good job.”

Blodgett said he couldn’t agree with the MUMPz requirement of 30 percent of all buildable lands be reserved as open spaces. He said with all the lands that aren’t useable, there would not be that much left.

The county’s draft MUMPz has been in the works since 2007. Brookings’ Master Plan of Development (MPoD) was first written in 2003, and has since been updated.

The county plan was approved by the County Planning Commission in September 2009 and sent to county commissioners for their consideration.

Pratt said the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) recently adopted by the city and county requires the county to adopt a master plan zone.

He said the zoning is necessary so that when UGB areas are eventually annexed into the city, standards such as streets in the annexed areas will meet the city’s standards.

Blodgett said he suggested that the commissioners follow Waddle’s advice and adopt Brookings’ plan for the UGB.

“It’s one that works,” he said.

Pratt says the county plan would allow single-family homes or apartments throughout a development but it would limit commercial uses.

He said the county’s plan allows some commercial nodes, spaced a half mile apart.

Brookings Mayor Larry Anderson said in a letter last month that he liked the city’s plan.

“In the city’s MPoD, project proposals require consideration of all natural resources, potential hazards, adjacent uses and other factors, including applicability of the city’s hillside development standards,” he said.

“The city MPoD regulations do provide for a wider variety of uses, but all proposed uses and location of those uses must address specific development standards and be approved by the Planning Commission,” Anderson said.

“The city’s MPoD regulations allow uses that are included in our Industrial Park (IP) zone,” Anderson said. “But these uses are only allowed if they are compatible with site conditions and neighboring uses. Not every use listed in the Industrial Park zone would be compatible in a mixed use development.”