Kupillas v. Sage and Social, LLC.

ORS 215.760 does not bar future use changes to agricultural buildings once brought into building-code compliance

Petitioner Sage and Social, LLC sought judicial review of a LUBA order remanding Clackamas County’s approval of a conditional use permit to operate an event venue in an existing barn on petitioner’s AG/F-zoned property. LUBA concluded that ORS 215.760(2) permanently prohibited changing the use of any agricultural building originally authorized as an exempt structure, thereby barring petitioner from converting its barn to event use.

The Court of Appeals held that LUBA misinterpreted ORS 215.760. Examining the statute’s text, context, and legislative history, the Court concluded that the legislature intended to ensure parity between agricultural and forest landowners by permitting exempt agricultural buildings in AG/F and forest zones, while preventing only the conversion of exempt structures without proper building-code compliance. Legislative testimony confirmed that landowners could later seek building permits and undergo full review to change an exempt structure’s use. Interpreting the statute to prohibit any future change, even after obtaining permits, would create inequities and lead to absurd results, such as requiring owners to demolish and rebuild an identical structure to proceed. Thus, because a building brought into code compliance is no longer “authorized by” ORS 215.760, the statutory conversion prohibition does not apply. REVERSED AND REMANDED.