Building on Raw Land in the McKenzie Valley, Lane County

The fire, in numbers

The Holiday Farm Fire ignited in September 2020 and burned more than 173,000 acres along the McKenzie River corridor east of Eugene-Springfield, destroying 517 homes across a roughly 20-mile stretch that includes the unincorporated communities of Blue River, Finn Rock, Nimrod, and Vida. Because nearly all of that destruction occurred in unincorporated Lane County under Oregon's strict statewide farm and forest land-use laws -- rather than inside a city with its own simpler building-permit process -- rebuilding here has been a genuinely more complicated, multi-year effort than a typical post-disaster rebuild.

Lane County's Land Management Division has waived roughly $1,728,978 in permit fees for fire survivors as part of the recovery effort, and has worked through a substantial backlog of rebuild permit applications and fee refunds. McKenzie Rebuilds, a dedicated recovery organization working alongside Lane County, describes the zoning landscape survivors are rebuilding within as falling into five main categories: Rural Residential (RR), Non-Impacted Forest (F-1), Impacted Forest (F-2), Exclusive Farm Use (EFU), and Rural Commercial (RC) -- each with its own permitted-use and dwelling-replacement rules.

Why EFU and forest-zoned rebuilds require an extra step

For a fire-destroyed home on EFU-, F-1-, or F-2-zoned land, Oregon law requires more than pulling a standard rebuild permit: the owner must first submit a Verification of Replacement Rights application (a Type 2 land-use application, in Lane County's process) to establish that the original dwelling was lawfully placed and meets the criteria for replacement before a building permit can be issued. This isn't a formality unique to any one property -- it's a statewide requirement built into Oregon's farm and forest land-use statutes, applied here at real scale because of how many EFU- and forest-zoned parcels were affected by a single fire.

For a buyer considering a McKenzie Valley parcel today -- whether a still-vacant burned lot or a property already rebuilt -- this history matters directly. If a lot's prior dwelling was destroyed and never went through Verification of Replacement Rights, replacement rights may not carry forward automatically, which can affect whether a future owner can rebuild a home on the parcel at all versus being limited to the underlying EFU or forest zone's often-narrow non-farm/non-forest dwelling criteria. Confirm the specific parcel's replacement-rights status and current permit history directly with Lane County Land Management before assuming a lot is simply rebuildable.

What to check before buying in the burn scar

1. Confirm the parcel's zoning designation (RR, F-1, F-2, EFU, or RC) directly with Lane County Land Management, since each carries different rebuild and new-dwelling rules.
2. If the parcel is EFU-, F-1-, or F-2-zoned and previously had a destroyed dwelling, ask specifically whether a Verification of Replacement Rights application was filed and approved -- and if not, what that means for your ability to build a home there now.
3. Ask whether the parcel benefited from Lane County's fire-survivor permit-fee waiver program, and get the current status of any pending or completed rebuild permit.
4. Confirm current wildfire-hazard-map designation for the parcel (Oregon's statewide maps became final January 7, 2025) since defensible-space and building-code requirements can apply on top of the standard zoning rules.
5. Verify well and septic system status separately -- a fire can damage or destroy a well pump, casing, or septic infrastructure even where the parcel itself is otherwise ready to rebuild.