Hearing set for Dec. 4 at the courthouse in McMinnville
In December 2012, the three-member Yamhill County Board of Commissioners, including conservatives Leslie Lewis and Kathy George, passed an ordinance that would allow for development of a rails-to-trails project that came to be known as the Yamhelas Westsider Trail.
The plan for the bicycle and hiking trail was added years earlier to the county’s transportation system plan. It paved the way for construction on a 15.25-mile stretch of former Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way roughly between McMinnville and Gaston into a trail if it met land-use planning muster and found funding.
After years of debate about the trail the issue is up for discussion once again in early December before the county planning commission and the board of commissioners.
A long, contentious history
Less than a decade after initial approval and after planning had begun to construct the trail, fierce opposition arose and legal challenges ensued. The drive to construct the trail advanced to the Land Use Board of Appeals on three different occasions as opponents argued against its construction. LUBA remanded the question back to the board of commissioners each time…