Opinion
Argued February 9, 1970
Reversed and remanded July 23, 1970 Petition for rehearing denied September 8, 1970
Appeal from Circuit Court, Clatsop County.
Thomas E. EDISON, Judge.
Glen V. Sorensen, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Leslie B. Hampton, Assistant Attorney General, G. E. Rohde, Assistant Attorney General and Chief Counsel for the Oregon State Highway, Commission, and Lee Johnson, Attorney General, Salem.
George W. Mead, Portland, argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was N. Robert Stoll, Portland.
Before SCHWAB, Chief Judge, and FORT and BRANCHFIELD, Judges.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
This is an action brought by the State of Oregon by its Highway Commission to condemn certain land required for widening, improvement and maintenance of the Wauna-Wesport section of the Columbia River Highway. This taking was in connection with the plan of improvement which included closure and relocation of a portion of Wauna Road and the construction of a new Wauna interchange, described in State Highway v. Hazapis, 3 Or. App. 282, 472 P.2d 831, Sup Ct review denied (1970), decided this date.
The land here condemned is alongside the Columbia River Highway and across Wauna Road southeasterly from the property taken in Hazapis, supra. Defendants owned 20.8 acres of land, of which the state has condemned 0.68 acres in this case. Prior to the highway improvement, this property abutted on Wauna Road for a distance of 90 feet. The taking reduced the frontage on Wauna Road from 90 feet to 40 feet. Wauna Road remains open for two-way traffic in a direction away from the Columbia River Highway, and is accessible from defendants' property by way of the 40 foot frontage.
The property remaining to the (defendants abuts upon two other roads for a total distance of approximately 1700 feet. One of those is the "old" Columbia River Highway, the other is Driskell Slough Road. Access is available to those roads at any point, except here prevented by the terrain. Traffic from the remaining land can go in either direction on the "old" Columbia River Highway and Driskell Slough Road. Traffic on either road can enter the "new" Columbia River Highway at the new Wauna interchange, or at the Driskell Slough Road intersection which is at grade.
This case was tried in Circuit Court two weeks after Hazapis, supra. It raises the same legal questions. Those questions must be answered the same way.
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.