Florence Planning Commission
P.O. Box 340
Florence, Oregon 97439

RE: Resolution 01-01-09-03
      Annexation of 77.69 acres located east of Florentine Estates and north of the City owned property containing the Water Treatment Facilities

Dear Commissioners:

Object to “postponement”
I understand that the applicant, Mr. Keubler,  has requested his application be “tabled” for four to five months  We object to any postponement of the planning commission’s decision for the following reason

The applicant is not requesting a postponement.  He is, in effect, asking for a whole new public hearing.  If the applicant is allowed to “perfect” his application at some point in the future, the  City will be required to go through the whole public hearing, public notice process all over again.  The city staff report will have to be completely re-written, as the applicable criteria (pertinent version of the Comprehensive Plan) will most likely have changed.   The city will have to incur the cost of re-doing all the public notice procedure.  All of this expense will have to be borne by the City (i.e. us taxpayers), and the applicant will have had to pay only one application fee which is supposed to cover at least some of the cost to the city.

If the applicant does not want the planning commission to make a decision based on the application he has already filed, then the application should be withdrawn, and the applicant should be required to pay for a new public process when he believes his application meets the applicable criteria.

While it is unfortunate that the applicant might have to incur additional expense, the planning commission should keep in mind that it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure his application is complete at the time of submission to the city - which he obviously did not do.  The taxpayers should not be required to pay for his inability to properly prepare the application.

Florence does not have sufficient water supplies
Attached are sections from an application from the City of Florence to the Oregon Water Resources Department for water permit for five new wells, received by the State on November 6, 2000.  That application clearly states:

     “B.  How long is the amount of water requested in this application expected to meet future needs?
     (City’s answer:) Water requested is not sufficient to meet future needs.  Water will be used      to reduce water purchases from Heceta Water District during peak demand flows.”  (Form M, page 2)

The permit application indicates that the city intends to begin construction on May 1, 2001, and they expect water use will begin August 16, 2001.  But as of January 19, 2001, the City had not “officially” filed their water rights permit application.  According to staff at the Oregon Water Resources Department, the City was notified that their application was not being “filed”  because certain documents were missing from the application.   The permit application process cannot begin until the application is “filed”.  The City’s engineers optimistically ventured that the permit process would typically take from 270 to 300 days. (11/2/00 Brown and Caldwell letter).   The City’s schedule for the well field expansion shows they expect the Water Use Permit to be granted June 4, 2001.

Even if the City’s application was properly filed on January 20, it would be at least September or October before the permit could be issued, at best.  Oregon Department of Water Resources staff is less optimistic, indicating in a recent phone conversation that most applications take between a minimum of six months and two years - if there are no objections or appeals.  One application, which faced opposition by a community group, actually took nine years before a hearing was even held.

The City cannot award a construction contract until they receive the water rights permit.  If they do not receive the permit until October 2001, then the very earliest the new wells could be on line would be February 2002.  As  the application to the Water Resources Department (see attached map) indicates that the City plans to locate the new wells inside this property next to roads and houses, it is extremely likely that objections to the granting of the permit will be raised by environmental or other organizations, and this would further extend the time before full production could be expected.

And the planning commission should keep in mind, that these five new wells will not meet the city’s current needs for water.  As the application states, they will only reduce the amount of water needed to be purchased from Heceta Water District. According to the City’s Water Facilities Plan, the City will have to spend somewhere in the range of $11 million in order to have enough wells to provide enough water to accommodate any new development.  There are no plans in place to pay for such an undertaking, and until the city has devised a method for funding this large expansion, the planning commission should not increase the burden on our already over-taxed water supply.

Zane Ziemer, President

Attachments:
 11/2/00 Brown and Caldwell Letter to OWRD
 Form M, Request for Water (Received 11/6/00 at OWRD)
 Map showing well field location inside proposed annexation area
 1/22/01 Letter from Keubler