Zoning in Columbia County, Oregon: The Port Westward Rezone Fight

How the fight started: 837 acres, bought in 2010

The Port of Columbia County purchased 837 acres of farmland near Clatskanie, adjacent to its existing Port Westward Industrial Park along the Columbia River, in 2010. The land was zoned Exclusive Farm Use, part of a broader area of productive farmland along the lower Columbia. Starting around 2014, the Port and county commissioners began pursuing a rezone of that farmland from EFU to industrial use, framing it as a needed expansion of the existing industrial park to attract new large-scale development.

That set off what has become one of the longest-running individual rezone disputes in modern Oregon land-use history. Environmental and farmland-protection groups -- including Columbia Riverkeeper and 1000 Friends of Oregon -- have consistently opposed the rezone, arguing the county has never adequately shown that converting this much prime farmland to industrial use is compatible with the agricultural operations that surround it, or specified with enough precision what would actually be built there.

Three approvals, three remands: the LUBA cycle

Columbia County commissioners have approved the Port Westward rezone application three separate times since the process began. Each time, opponents appealed to Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), the state body that reviews local land-use decisions, and each time LUBA sent the decision back to the county -- most recently in a May 2022 ruling described in coverage at the time as the county's 'third time not a charm.' LUBA's recurring concern has been the same core issue: the county's findings didn't adequately demonstrate that the proposed industrial uses would be compatible with the surrounding farm operations, and didn't specify precisely enough what kinds of development would actually occupy the 837 acres.

In direct response to that pressure for specificity, the Port narrowed its proposal down to five defined categories of industrial use: forestry and wood products, natural gas, dry bulk storage, liquid bulk storage, and breakbulk storage. That narrower framing was meant to give LUBA (and the county) something more concrete to evaluate for compatibility than an open-ended 'industrial use' designation.

Higher courts got involved, but the case remains open

The dispute escalated beyond LUBA at least once: the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld one of LUBA's rulings in the case, rejecting an attempt to overturn the remand. Separately, Columbia Riverkeeper petitioned the Oregon Supreme Court for review of the case, and the Supreme Court denied that petition -- letting the lower rulings stand rather than taking up the case itself. Neither outcome resolved the underlying zoning question for the 837 acres; both simply confirmed that the matter needed further work at the county level rather than settling it definitively for either side.

As of this research pass, this page cannot confirm whether a fourth county decision, a new LUBA appeal, or some other resolution is currently pending. If land near Clatskanie or the existing Port Westward Industrial Park is part of your search, confirm the current procedural status of this case, and the current zoning designation of the specific 837-acre area, directly with Columbia County Land Development Services or the Port of Columbia County before assuming either an industrial or a farm-use outcome.

What this means if you're evaluating land near Port Westward

1. Confirm whether a specific parcel is inside the disputed 837-acre area, adjacent to it, or elsewhere in the county -- proximity to an unresolved, decade-long rezone fight is a different risk profile than land with no connection to it.
2. Ask Columbia County Land Development Services directly for the current procedural status of the Port Westward rezone case, since LUBA, Court of Appeals, and county-level proceedings have moved multiple times over more than a decade.
3. Independent of the rezone dispute, factor in the existing industrial activity already operating at Port Westward -- three PGE natural-gas power plants and a Global Partners rail-to-marine transfer terminal -- since that activity affects nearby land today regardless of how the adjacent rezone eventually resolves.
4. If you have views on farmland preservation or industrial development in Columbia County, this case is an active, ongoing venue for that debate -- county planning commission and board meetings on the matter are open to public comment.