Parkdale Community Planning Process Continues

Hood River County Community Development is involved in a planning process to designate Parkdale as a rural unincorporated community in compliance with Statewide Planning Goal 14 (Urbanization). Community meetings, a community survey and analysis, draft comprehensive plan amendments, and public hearings are included in this planning process.

Ultimately, Hood River County’s Board of Commissioners will deliberate and decide on recommendations from the Hood River County Planning Commission. The County Planning Commission is the hearing body for certain administrative land use decisions, appeals, legislative requests, and long-range planning projects.

Last fall, a community survey in English and Spanish was mailed to 644 property owners located in and around Parkdale to solicit input from community residents about Parkdale’s planning project. Staff from the County and their consultant, MIG Inc., are analyzing the responses from 320 questionnaires returned, coordinating with affected public agencies, and developing findings for the draft community plan. Information on survey results will be provided to members of the community as it becomes available via email and the County Planning Department website. Two table events were also held outside of McIsaac’s grocery store in hopes of reaching community members who do not own property.

On November 16th, Community Development hosted a community meeting for residents of Parkdale. Several questions came up during the meeting that required additional response and clarification. As a result, Community Development prepared a “Q & A” document and shared it with over 90 meeting attendees who provided their email addresses. 

Community Development plans to host a second community meeting sometime in the next couple months to present its findings and provide another opportunity for input. Notice of this meeting will be provided via email, as well as through the County’s social media outlets and the Planning Department website. To sign up for County Community Development email announcements, please send an email request to the Community Development Department at planning@hoodrivercounty.gov.

County and MIG staff will then begin developing draft comprehensive plan amendments and zoning code/map revisions based on the input received so far. These revisions will be presented to the County Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners during a joint work session, open to the public, sometime this spring. Afterwards, revisions to the community plan and associated documents would be made based on the Planning Commission and Board’s input.

The Planning Commission will then hold a public hearing to consider the draft community plan and related Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance/Map changes. Opportunities for the public to attend and provide written and/or oral testimony will be provided in advance. Direct notice will be mailed to all property owners directly affected by this project in advance of the public hearing, while additional public notice will be provided to others via email, County social media outlets, the Planning Department website, and the Columbia Gorge News. Based on all the information presented and testimony received, the Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners to adopt the Community Plan either in whole or with changes.

A separate public hearing will then be held by the Board of Commissioners to consider the Planning Commission’s recommendation. A second opportunity for the public to testify will be provided. The Board will then make a final decision, which will then be sent to the State of Oregon for their agreement.

Downtown Parkdale