Judge’s ruling expected soon Arguments in court over French Creek Road last week boiled down to one basic issue: How does a road officially become a county road? And, if it is a county road, what’s the process for privatizing it? Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Henry Rawson heard oral arguments on Dec. 4 about […]
Open Roads Coalition
County supports public access to French Creek Rd.
Takes definitive position in the ongoing legal dispute After more than two years of sitting on the sidelines — simply willing to abide by whatever the court decides in an ongoing legal dispute — Okanogan County is defending the public status of French Creek Road. The reversal came in a 2-to-1 vote last Tuesday (Oct. 22) when Okanogan County […]
Commissioners act to declare a portion of French Creek Road open to public
In the latest development in a long-running legal dispute about access to French Creek Road, the Okanogan County commissioners this week voted to declare a portion of the rural road as open to the public and to oppose a pending quiet title action that seeks to have the road declared private. At their Tuesday meeting […]
Lawyers hash it out over locked gates, road access
The Okanogan Open Roads Coalition wants Okanogan County to compel private property owners to remove three gates the coalition says threaten public safety because the gates block escape routes.
Property owners Gamble Land and Timber and Cascade Holdings Group say the …
State AG provides guidance for correcting county’s roads list
Okanogan County has new guidance from the state assistant attorney general about correcting errors on its road log — carefully worded to avoid affecting ongoing litigation about whether French Creek Road is a public or private road.
Assistant Attorney General H. Lee Overton responded last month to …
French Creek Road access dispute apparently will proceed to trial
County judge hears persuasive evidence from both sides By Marcy Stamper It will require more fact-finding to determine whether a 3-mile segment of French Creek Road has always been a public road or has been used by the public only by permission of adjacent property owners, Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Henry Rawson concluded last […]
Okanogan County looks at compensation process for vacated roads
When county roads are closed at the request of a property owner, the county code sets out ways for the county to be compensated for the value of the road.
But the Okanogan County code, which lists three categories of roads and multiples scenarios for …
County prosecutor asks state AG for opinion on road claims
The Okanogan County prosecutor has asked the state attorney general for an informal opinion about how to officially recognize that the county has no claim or right to a road on a 1955 list of county roads.
Okanogan County Prosecutor Branden Platter submitted the opinion request to …
Legal arguments continue in dispute over primitive road access
It was standing-room-only in Okanogan County Superior Court last week for oral arguments over the ownership of a primitive road in the lower Methow Valley. A 3-mile stretch of road on French Creek outside the town…
Battle over rural roads will have court hearing
To people accustomed to traveling on the main highways of Okanogan County, roads to upper Texas Creek, French Creek, Brewster and the Chiliwist can seem far apart.
But these areas are actually all connected via old back roads that span the hills between the Methow …
