One size doesn't fit all

We're convinced there exists a middle ground in Baker County's struggle to ensure fire trucks and other emergency vehicles can reach rural homes, yet still allow owners to develop properties in such settings.

But right now that middle ground seems about as accessible as no man's land during the Battle of Verdun.

The problem is that the county's transportation plan is inflexible.

Specifically, the plan does not allow property owners to request a variance if, for instance, the plan mandates that they build a driveway that's much wider, or stronger, than is needed to accommodate fire engines and ambulances.

We're not quibbling with the plan's goal of making sure emergency vehicles can get where they need to go.

That's crucial not only for the people who need help, but for the people who provide it. A fire crew whose truck gets stuck on a narrow driveway could be in just as much danger as the family whose home lies in the path of a wildfire.

But there's no valid reason to require property owners to, in effect, overbuild a road.

Yet the county requires gravel roads in new subdivisions to handle trucks up to 80,000 pounds, even though rural fire district rigs, loaded with water, weigh about half that much.

County commissioners recently authorized the planning department to consider lower weight standards for gravel roads. That's a good start.

Commissioners also allowed planners to consider what's known as "vesting rights" when reviewing land-use applications.

Planners need to be careful with that one.

Property owners are considered vested if they have spent a certain amount of money on a road prior to gaining approval to develop their parcel.

The idea is that the county should give vested property owners credit, as it were, when reviewing their applications.

In theory this is reasonable.

But the county's overriding goal must be to ensure that the property is accessible to emergency equipment — regardless of how much money a property owner has spent.

We hope the next version of the county's transportation ordinance allows planners to examine each application as a unique situation, rather than continue to wrestle with rules that cram the county's diversity of landscapes into one bag.