A failure of compliance.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Lane County officials may be tempted to celebrate the recent resolution of the nasty, lingering dispute over zoning and land use compliance violations by the Cottage Grove Speedway.

They shouldn't.

Instead, they should stop and take a hard, unflinching look at the county's failures - let's be blunt, its complicity - in the speedway case, which is a microcosm of the county's ineffective compliance program. Fixing this system will take some time, money and political backbone on the part of county commissioners, who for too long have been content to look the other way rather than enforce the law (and anger constituents). Failure to do so threatens the quality of life in a county that will face intensifying land-use and zoning conflicts as its population and development grow in the decades to come.

County officials announced this week that they've reached an agreement with Bob and Russell Leach, the latest owners of the popular speedway that has operated and expanded in blatant violation of county zoning ordinances for decades. Under the agreement, the county will make adjustments in the fines it has assessed against the racetrack in exchange for acknowledgement from the Leaches that the county's rulings were appropriate. The settlement was triggered by the city of Cottage Grove's decision to annex the speedway, a move that shifts the burden of land use enforcement for the 17-acre site from the county to the city.

The annexation is a logical and long-overdue move, given the speedway's location next to city boundaries and its substantial impacts on city residents and businesses. Now, it will be the job of city, not county, officials to determine the proper zoning for the site and appropriate levels of use and facilities, and then to enforce those limits.

Hopefully, the city will do a thoughtful and thorough job of setting and overseeing land use laws for the popular and commercially successful speedway, which, whether critics like it or not, has become a core community institution. It's hard to believe that city officials could possibly do a worse job than their county counterparts have, at least until their relatively recent flurry of complaint-driven enforcement activity. For too many years, the county simply turned its head as current and past owners made wholesale improvements and other changes without obtaining required county permits and in violation of county zoning codes.

This zoning dispute - as well as the resulting bitter divisions between local racing enthusiasts and neighbors frustrated by noise, lighting, traffic and other speedway-related problems - could have been avoided if county officials had not tolerated such illegal and highly visible development for so many years.

Lane County commissioners should heed the criticism of land use watchdog groups, which rightly have urged the county to transform its passive approach to compliance. A good place to start would be turning the current overloaded and understaffed program (the county has only two compliance officers to oversee an area the size of Connecticut) to one that is adequately funded and staffed, and that has a clear mandate to aggressively monitor and enforce county zoning and land use laws.

County zoning laws and regulations are just that - laws and regulations, not helpful hints and suggestions. For far too long, the county's flaccid compliance program has sent the message to developers and other property owners that they have little to fear - and, often, much to gain - by ignoring the law.

Failure to revamp the county's compliance program will ensure not only a future filled with speedway-style migraines, but a steadily diminishing quality of life in Lane County.