Friends of the Metolius (FOM) and Toni Foster, head of FOM, have appealed Gordon and Jeff Jones' expansion plan. That plan was presented to the Camp Sherman Local Area Council (LAC) and met the approval of the Jefferson County Planning Commission (voting 6-0).

The applicants reviewed all aspects of their project for Commissioners Bill Bellamy, Mary Lempke and chairperson Walt Ponsford.

The project proposal calls for an additional 23 new cabins (condos), a meeting hall and a new sewage/septic system on 41.9 acres. Currently, there are 17 cabins and a lodge on the property that was established in 1935 with roots back another 13 years before that (as Hansen's Resort).

New cabins will be 1,350 square feet with an additional 550-square-foot deck. They will have three bedrooms and three baths.

Presently, 75 parking spaces are planned for the project.

Changes from previous presentations were the elimination of one new cabin and building one new cabin and renovating eight old cabins. Previously, Phase I removed two old buildings on the north portion of the property and included building two new cabins.

"The head of Camp Sherman's LAC told the Plan- ning Commission that the elimination of one new cabin would make the plan okay with him," said Gordon Jones. "Thus the elimination in our expansion plans."

Jones also reported that Columbia River Bank had approved a loan for commencing Phase I operations.

Another change was to scale back to three bridges going over the Lake Creek property rather than four.

One bone of contention in the appeal is ownership. The novel Lake Creek Lodge proposal plans individual ownership for the 39 cabins and a six-month mandatory rental time frame separated into four seasons of the year. The management team maintains total ownership of the land.

Cabin owners and the management team share rental fees with room tax going to Jefferson County.

One of the cabins will be reserved for the site's manager to use.

Commenting on Oregon's condominium law, Jefferson County legal counsel Pam Beery explained that the condo (cabin) owner doesn't own the land. Therefore, the one house ownership per five-acre rule currently in the LAC building code doesn't apply.

Attorney Tom Ryan, an LAC member, has written a lengthy brief objecting to that interpretation which was submitted to the Planning Commission.

Steve Wert, wastewater sanitarian and consultant for the applicants, outlined the new sewage/septic system -- estimated to cost $300,000. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)- approved plan calls for watertight septic tanks and a total nitrogen release of 5 milligrams per liter maximum in the effluent.

To accomplish this, a special membrane treatment filtration system will be set up. This system also greatly reduces total coliform bacteria from 500,000 (most probable number) to 0, and reduces other testing parameters by about 99 percent, according to the applicants.

The finished water will be used to drip irrigate bunch grass on the property.

Tom Atkins, landscape architect, Blaise Cacciola, architecture project manager, Chris Henningsen, Tye Engineering and Bob Lovelein, land use attorney, presented other aspects of the Lake Creek Lodge project.

Brian Bjornson, a Camp Sherman resident in Metolius Meadows, spoke in favor of the project and addressed what he sees as a need for updating Lake Creek Lodge.