Panel rejects speedway expansion.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

COTTAGE GROVE - A state review panel has overturned the city's 2006 approval of expanded operations at Cottage Grove Speedway, agreeing with expansion opponents that two city councilors showed so much bias they tainted the entire council's decision-making process.

"Councilors (Lindsey) Haskell and (Pat) Patterson exhibited an impermissible degree of bias and animus toward the opponents, and should have recused themselves from participating in the rezoning and Mixed Use Master Plan decisions," the state Land Use Board of Appeals declared in an opinion released late Thursday.

Both men declined comment Friday.

The three-attorney panel acknowledged that the pair were only two of six council members voting for racetrack expansion in a 6-to-1 decision.

"However, because both councilors were active participants in the decision making, we cannot know whether and to what extent their participation influenced the vote of the city council," concluded the opinion authored by appeals board chairman Tod Bassham. "Accordingly, remand is necessary to allow the council to consider the applications without their participation."

It's not clear who, exactly, comprises "the council" that will reconsider the case. The Cottage Grove City Council has changed since the March 2006 speedway approval vote. The panel no longer includes Haskell and two other councilors who voted for speedway expansion.

City Manager Richard Meyers said three new council members who assumed office in January "shouldn't be involved, because they were never part of" previous speedway hearings and discussions. But Doug DuPriest, the attorney for four Cottage Grove residents who appealed the earlier city council decision, said the matter should not be simply a new vote by the remaining 2006 councilors.

"This is one of only a handful of decisions in which LUBA has remanded a local government decision due to bias," DuPriest said. "LUBA is requiring the city to re-hear the matter, this time in a fair and impartial manner."

Meyers declined further comment on the case until city officials have a chance to confer with their attorney, who is out of state this week. A spokesman for the family-owned racetrack, Russell Leach, referred questions to attorney Bill Kloos.

"We're in `wait and see' mode until the city decides how to proceed," Kloos said. He noted that the Leaches "had no control over the bias issue, and the ruling never got to the merits of the case."

DuPriest said his clients "call upon the city and the speedway's owners to halt racing until all necessary land use and building approvals have been issued."

"For many years, the speedway has been operating in violation of basic zoning, building and public safety laws," he said. "Petitioners ask the speedway to be a safe, legal and good neighbor."

But Meyers said Cottage Grove has no plans to halt or curtail the already expanded operations at the racetrack. The speedway's owners, brothers Russell and Robert Leach and their wives Lori and Linda, are in their second year of an expanded race season that was part of a master plan request. City officials are satisfied that the Leaches "have addressed or are addressing ... the fire marshal's primary concerns about fire lanes and other safety issues," Meyers said Friday.

LUBA previously fined the Leaches more than $10,000 for failing to remove speedway improvements made without county approval before the racetrack was annexed by Cottage Grove in 2003. During subsequent city hearings, racetrack opponents said such actions flaunted land use law. They urged the council to hold the racetrack to the same standards as other applicants, who must meet all building code and safety requirements before opening new or expanded facilities to the public.

That issue was raised by Carlton Woodard, a member of a prominent Cottage Grove lumber and philanthropic family who joined longtime speedway critics Kris and Larry Okray and Martin Kilmer in appealing the city council approval.

In its decision, the land use board said Haskell demonstrated "emotional commitment to the speedway application and a powerful emotional animus against the opponents." They cited his signing of a 2003 public statement of support for the racetrack that "personally attacks Kilmer."

They also noted his statement - while refusing to recuse himself from the case - that "I've been a hot rodder and a racer my whole life. I drive a big truck with a big motor. If that means I'm biased, if that means I can't make a decision for the voters I represent in this community, so be it."

In Patterson's case, the land board cited his efforts in disclosing logs of police complaints by Kilmer and the Okrays "to discredit the opponents in the eyes of the city council and the public."

The board found insufficient evidence of bias to disqualify Mayor Gary Williams from participating in the decision, as the appellants had also sought. The panel dismissed their example of Williams writing letters to the county in 2002 "stating that the issue of speedway noise is, for many in the city, the sound of `cash registers ringing.' ''

"This type of economic boosterism is not in itself evidence of bias or prejudgment," the ruling said.

READ IT FOR YOURSELF

The entire 15-page LUBA decision on Cottage Grove's speedway is available on The Register-Guard's Web site: www.registerguard.com