Thornburgh Resort won a string of battles this week when the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners gave preliminary approvals for an updated fish and wildlife mitigation plan, and the Oregon Supreme Court declined three appeals filed by the resort’s longtime opponent Nunzie Gould.
Thornburgh is the most litigated property in Central Oregon history, and since the first permit was sought in 2005 over 50 appeals have been made through the Land Use Board of Appeals, the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court. The most recent appeal process stemmed from a proposed modification to the resort’s fish and wildlife plan.
A hearing officer rejected the modification request in December, saying the plan lacked enforceable oversight mechanisms that guarantee the resort is complying with Oregon’s no net loss standard and that the applicants didn’t get input from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. No net loss requires developers to prove that their projects will not degrade wetlands. On March 29, the Deschutes County Commission overturned that decision and gave tentative approval over the new fish and wildlife plan.
The applicant claims the updated fish and wildlife plan would consume 30% less water than the approved 2008 plan, achieving this by building fewer golf courses and lakes along with modernized water delivery. The resort, south of Eagle Crest, is nearly 2,000 acres, and its master plan allows for 950 single family homes and 380 hotel rooms.
Thornburgh owner Kameron Delashmutt told KBND that one golf course has already been shaped and the lakes are excavated, with work still being done on drainage, irrigation and roads. Delashmutt said a water reservoir is installed and that soon a pump station will get the resort’s water system online. He estimated it could be open by 2024.
Deschutes County will likely formalize the approval on April 12 as an alteration to the master plan. That approval would allow opponents to once again file an appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 6, 2023.
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In voting to reject the plan Comissioner Chang said “I think we need to look farther than whether you have a legal water right or not to evaluate whether there will be impacts to habitat or not,” Curious that he does not apply the same logic to the habitat impacts caused by canal piping or the damage irrigation companies do to the Deschutes River.