Skamania County v. Woodall

• Decision Date: 26 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. 25204-0-II.,25204-0-II.
• Citation: 16 P.3d 701,104 Wash.App. 525
• Parties: SKAMANIA COUNTY, Appellant, v. Chris WOODALL, Respondent, and Columbia River Gorge Commission, Intervenor-Respondent.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals

16 P.3d 701

104 Wash.App. 525

SKAMANIA COUNTY, Appellant, v. Chris WOODALL, Respondent, and Columbia River Gorge Commission, Intervenor-Respondent.

No. 25204-0-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

January 26, 2001.

Bradley W. Andersen, Skamania County Pros. Office, Stevenson, for Appellant.

Jonathon Aurel Gurish, Asst. Atty. Gen., Olympia, Gary Keith Kahn, Reeves, Kahn & Eder, Portland, OR, for Respondents.

HOUGHTON, J.

The Skamania County Board of Adjustment ruled that Washington law requires a person seeking to prove a land occupier has discontinued a nonconforming use to prove that the land occupier intended to discontinue that use. On appeal, the Columbia River Gorge Commission ignored Washington law and ruled that the term "discontinued" did not contain an intent element. The superior court affirmed the Commission, and Skamania County appeals. We reverse and remand to the Commission for further proceedings.

FACTS

Background

In 1986, President Reagan signed into law the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act (the Act), which created the Columbia River Gorge Commission (the Commission). See Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act of 1986, PL 99-663, 100 Stat. 4274 (codified at 16 U.S.C. §§ 544-544p). Washington and Oregon made the Act effective by agreeing to the Columbia River Gorge Compact (the Compact), which adopted the Act as state law. RCW 43.97.015; OR.REV.STAT. § 196.150.

Backers of the Act began lobbying Congress in 1980. Bowen Blair, Jr., The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area: The Act, Its Genesis and Legislative History, 17 ENVTL.L. 863, 881 (1987). One of the principal issues in the six-year debate was who would control land use regulations, especially in the places eventually designated as "Special Management Areas." Blair, supra, at 899. Backers wanted to follow the Cape Cod formula, where the federal government required local land use regulations to be consistent with federal rules. Blair, supra, at 952. President Reagan opposed federal control because he argued federal zoning was unconstitutional. Blair, supra, at 920.

To resolve this concern, Congress adopted a compromise the backers developed. Although this compromise gave the counties a large role in administering their land use ordinances, and gave the Secretary of Agriculture (the Secretary) a role in overseeing land management, it also gave a large role to a Commission comprised of Oregon and Washington citizens. The compromise provided that the Secretary and the Commission would adopt an overall Management Plan. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(f). The counties would then adopt local land use ordinances, and submit them to the Commission, which would ensure the ordinances were consistent with its Management Plan. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(h)(2), (i)(1). If the Commission did not approve the ordinance, the county could revise it, or the Commission would impose a plan on the county. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(i)(2)-(3), (l). If the Commission approved the ordinance, the Commission would send it to the Secretary for approval. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(j). If the Secretary approved the ordinance, the counties would enforce it and the Commission would serve merely as an appellate administrative body. 16 U.S.C. § 544m(a)(2). If the Secretary did not approve the ordinance, the Commission could either send the ordinance back to the county for revision, or override the Secretary's veto with a two-thirds vote. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(j)-(l). A county could submit a land use ordinance at any time, even after the Commission imposed its plan on that county. 16 U.S.C. § 544f(m). See generally Columbia River Gorge United-Protecting People & Prop. v. Yeutter, 960 F.2d 110, 112 (9th Cir.) (giving an overview of this process), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 863, 113 S.Ct. 184, 121 L.Ed.2d 128 (1992). The Act gave state courts jurisdiction over almost all challenges to the Commission's actions. 16 U.S.C. § 544m(b)(6).

The Secretary and the Commission completed the final Management Plan in 1992. Under "EXISTING USES," it provides:

1. Except as otherwise provided, any use or structure existing on the effective date of the Management Plan may continue, as long as it is used in the same manner and for the same purpose as on that date.

....

3. Replacement or reestablishment of a use or structure discontinued for 1 year shall be subject to the policies and guidelines in the Management Plan.

...

....

10. Except as otherwise provided, whether a use has a vested right to continue will be determined by the law on vested rights in the appropriate state.

MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE NATIONAL SCENIC AREA at II-87 to II-98 (1992). The Commission approved Skamania County's land use ordinance on existing uses, which provides:

1. Except to the extent specifically set forth below, any use or structure existing on October 15, 1991[,] may continue so long as it is used in substantially the same manner and for the same purpose as on that date.

2. Replacement or reestablishment of a use or structure discontinued for one year shall be subject to the provisions of this Title.

SKAMANIA COUNTY CODE § 22.06.090.

Procedural Posture Below

In summer 1995, the director of the Skamania County Department of Planning and Community Development approved Scott Anderson's¹ application to run a mobile home park in a Special Management Area of the Columbia River Gorge, finding it had been a mobile home park prior to the new zoning rules and, thus, was a valid nonconforming use. Chris Woodall, the owner of a neighboring mobile home park, appealed and asserted that the prior owners had discontinued using the site for over one year, and thus forfeited the nonconforming use.² The Skamania County Board of Adjustment affirmed the director's ruling, agreeing that Washington law required Woodall to prove that the prior owners intended to discontinue using the site as a mobile home park before they could lose their vested right. Woodall appealed to the Columbia River Gorge Commission under 16 U.S.C. § 544m(a)(2), arguing that the Board had applied the wrong legal standard and that the facts did not support the Board's findings.

The Commission reversed the Board of Adjustment, finding that the Board applied the wrong legal standard. Refusing to apply Washington law, the Commission found that "discontinued for one year" meant stop using for one year, irrespective of intent. The Commission reasoned that the purpose of the one-year period was to provide an objective test rather than a subjective test like intent. The Commission further found that this interpretation was consistent with its purposes of protecting the Gorge and providing uniform enforcement. Although the Commission did not directly address the Washington authority that was contrary to its interpretation, it asserted that because an interstate compact created it, its interpretation of the law preempted state law.

Having determined that intent was irrelevant, the Commission did not address Woodall's second claim that the facts did not support the Board's conclusion that the land occupiers had not intended to abandon the seven sites at issue.³

Skamania County appealed to the superior court. The Commission intervened and argued to affirm. The superior court affirmed the Commission's ruling. Skamania County appeals. There are two questions on appeal: Was the Commission required to apply federal law or Washington law to resolve issues not resolved by the Act or Management Plan? If the Commission was required to apply Washington law, did it do so properly?

ANALYSIS

I.

The first question has two parts. (A) Whose law must we apply when determining whether the Commission was required to apply federal or Washington law? and (B) Under that law, whose law was the Commission required to apply?

A.

For an interstate compact to be formed under the interstate compact clause of the federal constitution, Congress must consent and the compacting states must consent.⁴ Here, the Act evidences Congress's approval and the Compact evidences Washington and Oregon's approval. Thus the Act and the Compact govern the operation of the Commission, including questions of whose law the Commission is required to apply when deciding a land use dispute between parties such as those here.

When construing the Act and Compact, we are governed by federal law. See Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm'n, 359 U.S. 275, 278, 79 S.Ct. 785, 3 L.Ed.2d 804 (1959); see also Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U.S. 433, 438-40, 101 S.Ct. 703, 66 L.Ed.2d 641 (1981). To ascertain the meaning of a statute, courts look to the intent of Congress. Negonsott v. Samuels, 507 U.S. 99, 104, 113 S.Ct. 1119, 122 L.Ed.2d 457 (1993). To determine this intent, courts first look at the plain meaning of the statute. Negonsott, 507 U.S. at 104, 113 S.Ct. 1119. Courts must read each clause in context, considering the meaning of the statute as a whole. Holloway v. United States, 526 U.S. 1, 6-7, 119 S.Ct. 966, 143 L.Ed.2d 1 (1999). Courts then employ ordinary tools of statutory construction, see Regions Hosp. v. Shalala, 522 U.S. 448, 457, 118 S.Ct. 909, 139 L.Ed.2d 895 (1998), such as considering legislative history. Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 896, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984).

Courts should not look to an agency's interpretation of a statute unless the intent of Congress is unclear. Norfolk and Western Ry. Co. v. Am. Train Dispatchers Ass'n, 499 U.S. 117, 128, 111 S.Ct. 1156, 113 L.Ed.2d 95 (1991). Courts should disregard an agency interpretation of a statute if it is inconsistent with the intent of Congress. FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 120 S.Ct. 1291, 1297, 146 L.Ed.2d 121 (2000). Finally, courts should not defer to an agency interpretation of an ambiguous statute if the interpretation is not within the agency's area of expertise. National Ass'n of Gov't Employees, Inc. v. Fed. Labor Relations Auth., 179 F.3d 946, 950 (D.C.Cir.1999); see also Fed. Election...