Opinion ID: 1427665
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Timeliness of Petitioners' Challenges

Text: Petitioners contend that the Department failed to comply with the Oregon Administrative Procedures Act requirements in adopting OAR 291-90-010, specifying mandatory and permissible criteria to be considered in the nomination and selection of a prison site. Petitioners contend that the court may review the validity of the rules even though petitioners did not petition for review of the rules within 21 days after the effective date of chapter 789, as required by section 10(2)(a) of that chapter. Section 10(2)(a) provides that any challenge to the validity of criteria adopted by the Department under the authority conferred by chapter 262 shall be filed within 21 days of the issuance of the criteria or 21 days after the effective date of this Act, whichever is later. The legislature required that challenges to discrete decisions in the siting process be made expeditiously so that if no challenge were made, the next stage of the process could proceed with confidence that a belated challenge to an earlier decision would not derail or delay the process. The legislature did not intend that the Department's criteria could be challenged in an appeal from the final Siting Authority's site selection decision on the basis that the Siting Authority in making its decision had acted outside its authority. Petitioners' challenge to the validity of the Department's rules was not timely.