The showdown is looming.

The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals will hold a hearing after Sandy
resident Kathleen Walker appealed the city council’s approval of the Oregon
Trail School District’s plans to construct the new Sandy High School. No
hearing date has been set.

Walker’s appeal will be heard by the three LUBA board members: chairman
Michael A. Holstun, Tod A. Bassham and Melissa M. Ryan. Hearings are only
scheduled on Thursdays, while the board hears approximately 100 cases each
year.

Walker and Ron Bush originally appealed a number of elements of the project,
including pedestrian access, ball field lighting and the use of Cor-ten steel,
after the city planning commission’s originally approved plans in the spring.
The file record, including everything that happened at the local level, was to
be filed by Thursday, Aug. 26, followed by a 14-day period for those involved
to file objections on the submitted information. The City of Sandy is listed as
the respondent, while the district filed a notice to intervene in order to
participate in the hearing.

According to LUBA, an appeal must be based on local officials failing to follow
procedures, a violation of a constitutional guarantee or state or local law, or
the evidence in the record did not support the decision.

At the LUBA appeal hearing, Walker will have 30 minutes to present her case
before the board, followed by 30 minutes by the respondent. Walker may use
10 minutes of her original 30 minutes for rebuttal, while the board members
may ask questions of the participants. The hearing is expected to take
approximately one hour.

The board will issue a written decision a few weeks after the hearing, and the
decision can be appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The losing party may be required to pay the winning party’s costs for the
appeal, which could include delays to the project, according to LUBA.

Walker and school district officials declined to comment for this story.
For more information, visit oregon.gov/LUBA.