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In a room of about 40 tense residents opposing the action, the Coos County Board of Commissioners approved a request by a landowner to augment a zoning ordinance at a legislative hearing Wednesday at the Coos County Courthouse in Coquille.

According to the new language, recreational planned unit developments, which can include family homes, vacation homes, high-intensity recreation facilities and commercial establishments, now will be considered inside unincorporated areas zoned for urban residential use.

In the county, there are three such unincorporated burgs - Charleston, Barview and Bunker Hill. Indian Point, Inc., owned by Smith River, Calif., resident Hank Westbrook, has requested the county change the land's forestry zoning to urban residential, making it eligible for the R-PUD label under Wednesday's ordinance change.

Though the new regulation applies countywide, opponents focused on Indian Point, a 184-acre parcel of land near the South Slough. Opponents contended a small community such as Charleston cannot handle the potential sprawl brought by a major development.

"When you make drastic changes," Katie Jumper told the commissioners, "a lot of people may not be able to handle this (zoning). That speaks of many places in the United States where it's a small, quiet area. Landowners don't want this. There is no reason for a change. The reason for change for the proponent is strictly hard money."

Others said the regulation change is part of a more complicated motive.

"The casual reader would conclude this is an amendment directly aimed at Indian Point," said Anne Donnelly. "But it also appears to me to be a Trojan horse to bring in development to the county. There would never again be the opportunity for these communities to have the choice of whether an R-PUD can go in their area."

The lone proponent at the meeting, Chris Hood of Coos Bay-based Stuntzner Engineering, said the regulation change doesn't necessarily mean development is on the way. Hood added that a letter written to the Planning Department by the Goal One Coalition and the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, both nonprofit environmental groups, failed to identify inconsistencies between his proposal and a state unincorporated communities law that allows county approval of only low-impact commercial uses in those places.

After each resident gave testimony, Hood was given a chance to rebut.

"This is not an outright change," Hood said. "Golf courses, marinas and such are already allowed there anyway. R-PUD fits more to what we vision in the future of that property."

Hood said it remains to be seen what developers could propose for Indian Point.

Complex land use regulations are further complicated by the fact that unincorporated areas have no set boundaries, said Commissioner John Griffith. Throughout testimony, he often reminded the increasingly frustrated opponents that testimony was to be limited in general to the ordinance language, and not to Indian Point specifically.

"Land use in Oregon is never simple and I can sure see why the public was confused," Griffith said.

Residents were further frustrated because, some said, they were not notified of the ordinance change or the land-use change. Planner Patty Evernden said mail notices were sent out to all residents within 750 feet of the land and newspaper ads were posted as well.

Residents requested individually to be notified about the land use hearings scheduled for Jan. 5 and 19, at a yet-to-be-determined place and time. That's when people are allowed to speak about Indian Point, Griffith said.

"They can talk about the application and their comments for us to use in the decision, but they have to be directed at the relevant criteria," he said.

An appeal could be brought to the state level before the January hearings, according to Fran Recht, conservation director for Oregon Shores, the coastal conservation group which also is involved in a court battle with Charleston business owner Robin Stevenot over her proposed condominium development in Barview.

Despite the county inserting a provision that developments must comply with the unincorporated communities rule, Recht maintains the commissioners' allowance of uses under the R-PUD designation is still contradictory to state law, and a backdoor attempt to bring in sprawling development.

"Even if they reference (the law), it's still contradictory," Recht said. "You can't just by slight of hand make it work."

According to the Planning Department, no applications for development at Indian Point have been received. If and when they are, the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve will have its say, as well as the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Siuslaw and Lower Umpqua.

"There are archaeological sites that are registered with the state in close proximity to the property in question," said Howard Crombie, environmental division coordinator for the tribes. "We have a good working relationship with Coos County and we don't object to the proposed zoning change but we do reserve the right, when we see something specific, to comment to the Planning Commission accordingly."

Members of the South Slough also will wait to see what happens.

"(Indian Point) doesn't share a common border with the slough, but it certainly shares in common the tidal water body and there is certainly an exchange of material that moves with the tide between the slough, that area and the town of Charleston," said Mike Graybill, manager of the research and education center. "It's obviously something we're observing with great interest."

Crown Point Road resident Brent Lerwell doesn't plan to be as reactionary. He said there will be a movement against development by nearly every one of his neighbors.

"(This decision) allows for high-density use of this very sensitive piece of land," he said. "Motels, 7-Elevens, shops ... we need to get specific at the next hearing."

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The changed ordinance is in Section 4.2.900 of the Coos County Land Zoning and Development Ordinances. Uses under recreational planned unit developments are listed under Section 6.7.200.