Hearing on Floras Lake

Floras Lake.\Photo courtesy of Floras Lake House.

The Curry County commissioners are holding a special workshop this Wednesday, April 17, at 2 pm., to consider the long-sought Floras Lake land swap.  The meeting will be held in the County Annex Building (94235 Moore St.).  The proposal is for State Parks to swap about 33 acres at the intersection of Airport Rd and Hwy 101 (across from Pacific High School) in North Curry for 70 acres of the county's lands south of Floras Lake, adjacent to Floras Lake Natural Area.  The commissioners earlier set June 5 as the date for deciding on the proposal—this workshop is preliminary, but provides another opportunity for the area’s conservationists, who strongly support the proposal, to speak in favor to the commissioners.

According to our colleague Ann Vileisis of Kalmiopsis Audubon:  “Last fall, appraisals were conducted for both properties, and the county land came in as being less valuable, owing to lack of public access and poor timber. To make up for the difference, OPRD has proposed 2 options --to do the same swap but with 90 acres instead of 70, or to do a 70-acre swap but add a conservation easement over an additional area. Either of these options would work (I think the outright swap would be more straightforward), but the key thing is to ask the Commissioners to move ahead with resolving this land swap that has been in the works for many years, and to NOT go back to the drawing board.”

You can read the proposal and see maps of the options here, see Agenda Item 7a.

Since the last hearing the commissioners held on the issue, one commissioner asked, why not just put in a road and sell off the entire parcel?  Kalmiopsis Audubon sent a well-reasoned letter reply to him and the other commissioners. Here it is again.

Since then State Parks has also sent a new letter to the commissioners (in the meeting packet, Item 4c): 

Comments can be made at the outset of the meeting (be sure to sign up as a speaker when you arrive).

If you cannot attend, you can also send an email to the commissioners or make a phone call. Here are email addresses: 

Chris Paasch <PaaschC@co.curry.or.us>

Court Boice <boicec@co.curry.or.us>

Sue Gold <golds@co.curry.or.us>

Phone number for the commissioners is (541) 247-3296.