Simpson Heights residents take scuffle to Land Use Board of Appeals

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, July 8, 2014

NORTH BEND — Simpson Heights residents are planning to file an appeal with the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals, dubbing an upcoming meeting regarding Jordan Cove’s proposed workforce housing camp “a dog and pony show.”

On Monday, Jan Dilley and Jody McCaffree filed a notice of intent to file an appeal with LUBA on the heels of the North Bend City Council’s dismissal of their appeal of the planning commission’s permits approval for the workforce housing camp.

“We do not believe that the City of North Bend followed their own land use codes by denying citizens a right to appeal the Planning Commission decision and a right to have a hearing on this matter before the City Council,” McCaffree said in an email.

The city of North Bend scheduled a meeting 7 p.m. July 16 at the North Bend Community Center for Simpson Heights residents and representatives from Jordan Cove, Kiewit/Black and Veatch, and Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council to discuss the proposed workforce housing camp on the Al Pierce property west of the McCullough Bridge.

“Because they did not inform the people of Simpson Heights and North Bend of their original intent, they must now play catch up with a presentation that should have been made at the beginning of the process,” according to the news release.

They say the meeting is a way “to placate the voters and diffuse the hornets nest they themselves have stirred up.”