Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals has reversed Lake County’s decision to authorize an auto wrecking yard on 28 acres of agricultural land.

In 2020, the county approved a conditional use permit for the wrecking yard near Lakeview, which had been dismantling vehicles since the 1980s without proper authorization.

The new owner applied for a permit to bring the property into regulatory compliance, with the goal of collecting scrap metal and selling it in bulk.

Neighboring landowners said they feared adverse environmental impacts and claimed a wrecking yard belonged in an industrial zone.

The county authorized the permit under the theory that the wrecking yard was a similar land use to a “disposal site,” which is allowed in the agricultural zone.

However, opponents claimed the business would actually act as a “dismantler,” which isn’t a permitted use in the farm zone, and LUBA has now agreed with their arguments.

“The county’s decision to allow a junkyard, junk, an automobile wrecking yard, and a wrecking yard allows uses of agricultural land that are not allowed under state law,” according to LUBA’s ruling.

The “similar use authorization” does not apply to non-farm uses other than those allowed by state law, the ruling said.

Apart from that issue, the county would have been required to condition its approval on the state’s Department of Environmental Quality issuing a disposal site permit, the ruling said.