ORS 341.565: Boundary board; petition, hearings; legislative approval required; effective date of change; filing of change.

(1) The Higher Education Coordinating Commission shall constitute the boundary board for making any changes in the boundaries of community college districts. The commission on its own motion or on petition from a petitioning territory may propose changes in the boundaries of a community college district. The commission must find that the proposed change will have no substantially adverse effect upon the ability of the affected districts to provide and continue their programs and is not made solely for tax advantages to property owners in the district or area affected by the proposed change. The commission may submit the question of a boundary change to a vote of the electors of the territories affected by the boundary change. The election must be held on the same day in each of the affected territories. (2) A petition shall be in a form prescribed by the commission and must contain the information that the commission requires. The petition shall: (a) Contain a minimum number of signatures as fixed by the commission; and (b) Be either received by the commission, or mailed to the commission as evidenced by a postmark date, no later than 90 days after the date the first signature on the petition is recorded. (3)(a) Before any order changing boundaries of an existing district is entered, the commission shall set dates for a public hearing in the area to be included in the district or excluded from the district by the proposed boundary change and, in the case of annexation of new territory, in the principal town of the existing district that annexes the new territory. The commission shall give notice of the public hearing in the manner required in ORS 341.357. (b) At the time set in the notice, the commission or its authorized representative shall conduct a public hearing on the motion or petition and may adjourn the hearing from time to time. (c) If the commission determines that it is unable to locate a suitable venue to hold a public hearing in an area described in paragraph (a) of this subsection, the commission shall hold the public hearing at a suitable venue that is as close to the area described in paragraph (a) of this subsection as the commission can reasonably locate. (4)(a) If, upon final hearing, the commission approves the motion or petition or affirms the vote of the electors of the affected territories, the commission shall: (A) Make an order describing the revised boundaries of the district; and (B) Not sooner than 20 days after making the order, submit a copy of the order to the Legislative Assembly for approval. (b)(A) The order becomes final when the order is approved by the Legislative Assembly. (B) If the order is not approved, the commission may revise the order and resubmit the order to the Legislative Assembly but not sooner than 60 days after the action of disapproval was taken. (C) If the Legislative Assembly fails to take any action on an order submitted under this subsection, the commission may resubmit an unrevised order to the Legislative Assembly without holding the public hearings described in subsection (3) of this section. (5) Any division of assets and liabilities required by a change in the boundaries of a district shall be made pursuant to ORS 341.573. (6) When the boundaries of a district are changed, if the final order of the commission or an election held under ORS 341.569: (a) Occurs between July 1 and March 31, inclusive, the change takes effect on the June 30 following the final order or election favoring the change. (b) Occurs between April 1 and June 30, inclusive, the change takes effect on the June 30 of the following year. (7) For purposes of ad valorem taxation, a boundary change must be filed in final approved form with the county assessor and the Department of Revenue as provided in ORS 308.225. [1971 c.513 §83; 1977 c.827 §2; 1995 c.67 §26; 2001 c.138 §16; 2003 c.574 §3; 2013 c.747 §65; 2021 c.53 §1]