A series of structures built without permits on residential parcels along the McKenzie River near Walterville will receive retroactive approval after Lane County Commissioners voted Tuesday to overrule staff.

The 3-1 vote allows property owner Kathleen Jones-McCann to bring a series of structures into compliance retroactively, despite county officials twice denying her permits.

“When I got the idea to do this, it was the beginning of COVID, and we went down to the permitting offices — closed to the public,” Jones-McCann told commissioners. “We went back two weeks later — closed to the public. I gave up. I had a friend who is in construction, and he said take pictures of everything inside this construction. Take pictures as we go. You can turn them over to inspectors, and they’ll approve it. Everything will be to code.”

Jones-McCann said the point of the structure was to allow her family a place to stay together during the pandemic, noting that she added off-the-grid solar and a hand-operated water pump.

Among the reasons staff denied the permit was concern about a 100-foot setback that was required on the property due to its zoning and proximity to the river, particularly a small waterway that branches off of the McKenzie and runs between the house and a neighboring property.

Jones-McCann’s attorney, Mike Reeder, claimed that waterway to be a pond rather than an offshoot of the river, something that Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Joe Stack disputed.

“When you look at Oregon administrative rules, that’s going to define a stream as any channel that carries flowing surface water during any part of the year,” Stack told commissioners. “Wild spring chinook were observed, which are a state and federally listed species. The presence of that fish at any time confers fish use and supports [the designation].”

Jones-McCann stated her love for the McKenzie River, and that she thinks that the work she has done has not harmed the area’s nature.

“I can list right now more animals and birds that come back and stay on my property because of those man-made ponds, the pastures, the woods, everything that I love about this property,” she said.

Reeder said denying the permits would constitute a total taking of Jones-McCann’s property since she would not be able to use it for most purposes, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council.

That case involved the state changing land laws while a developer was building near the coast, causing some of his lots to be unusable for their intended purpose.

“Lucas had the temerity to challenge this and said, ‘hey, this is a total regulatory taking of my property. There’s no value left and there’s nothing that I can do to it,” said Reeder. “And he had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court for the court to say that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t allow the government to take all economic value from a property.”

Commissioners David Loveall, Pat Farr and Ryan Ceniga voted in favor of allowing the permits.

All three acknowledged the hard work of staff and the difficult position of the case during deliberations.

“It feels like we’re splitting hairs here,” said Loveall, who called Lane County the toughest Oregon county to build in. “It feels like there’s a path forward that the applicant can make the corrections, pay the appropriate permits, fines, whatever is necessary.”

Farr and Loveall both also noted that nearby properties — which have different zoning — only require a 50-foot setback.

Heather Buch was the vote against.

“The part that feels egregious is how much time, effort and cost it is to correct something like this well after the fact,” she said. “I want to share that particular frustration because a lot of this could have been avoided if it had been done with permits originally.”

Commissioner Laurie Trieger was absent from the meeting.

The motion voted on by commissioners overturned staff’s denial, conditionally approved the applications using the board’s interpretation of Lane County’s land use and development code, and waived a section that sets in place rules dealing with floodplains.

Buch raised a concern before the vote about the final part of the motion, noting that it was not mentioned in the public notice for the meeting.

Commissioners opted to move forward after asking Jones-McCann’s attorney if he would prefer the motion be reworded to avoid any public notice issues.

Zac Ziegler is a reporter with KLCC. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/08/lane-county-mckenzie-river-building-permits-retroactive-approval/