Benton County has rejected Charles M. Fischer's application for a "vested right" to subdivide his farm to pay for the nursing home expenses of his wife.

The Fischers are in their 80s. Under Measure 37, they had previously won approval for a seven-lot subdivision on their 31-acre property on Pettibone Drive in northern Benton County, zoned exclusive farm use.

They were blocked from going further with their plans to sell lots when, in November 2007, voters approved the legislature's Measure 49 to cancel Measure 37.

They applied for a determination that under M49 they had a vested right to go ahead. But Greg Verret, the interim planning director in Benton County, denied the application Wednesday.

"Mr. Fischer presented the personally compelling story of their situation," Verret said in an e-mail. "He needs to sell residential lots to cover medical costs for his wife."

But, Verret said, under guidelines laid down in a series of court cases on vested rights, completion of the subdivision was not enough for vesting. Instead the whole project included the building of houses, and his expenses so far amounted to only 3 to 4 percent of the entire project.

Fischer has spent at least $67,000 so far on his aplication.

He said Wednesday he never intended to build houses, just to sell the lots, so it was unreasonable to measure his progress in terms of building houses.

"The whole thing is this," he said. "1,000 Friends and the Democrats in the legislature felt if they stall long enough, the old people will die off or they will give up."

His alternatives now are to apply for a Measure 49 land division into three building sites (two in addition to his own house), appeal the denial or apply for a zone change. Most of the surrounding property has already been split into large homes sites.

Democrat-Herald