Oregon has been the first state to officially experiment with Smart Growth. - since then it has been a wild road of planning efforts, repeals, and now laws that put planning back in the limelight. Here is an article written by Dave Hunnicutt from the Oregonians in Action, the primary sponsors of Measure 37 which repealed the zoning laws initially in place to encourage smart growth urban development.
One step back on an irreversible path
One step back on an irreversible path
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
T he passage of Measure 49 marks another chapter in Oregon’s long struggle with land-use planning.
The dark side of last week’s vote is the impact it will have on the 7,500 families and Oregon businesses who filed Measure 37 claims. But despite the fact that Measure 49 is a bitter disappointment to many, its passage puts Oregon on an irreversible path toward greater protection of individual property rights.
Why? Because for the first time in Oregon’s 34-year-old experiment with statewide centralized land-use planning, its most zealous advocates have acknowledged that there is a need to balance the rights of the individual property owner with the desires of the planning community, and that Oregon’s system has done a poor job of balancing those competing interests.
In the past two months, these land-use advocates have spent nearly $5 million to pass a measure that explicitly recognizes that Oregon’s experimental land-use laws have created unfair hardships on many Oregon property owners.
They’ve sent mail pieces, run television ads and given speeches assuring us all that it’s only fair that these longtime property owners finally see a return on their lifetime investment that has been slowly and systematically stripped from them by one new land-use rule after another.
They’ve worked hard to pass a measure that claims to provide protection to Oregon property owners if state or local governments adopt new land-use regulations in the future.
What a topsy-turvy world.
Of course, there’s a simple reason why land-use planning advocates are finally acknowledging that the system needs to change. That reason is Measure 37.
As the Bend Bulletin wrote in its editorial in favor of Measure 49, “The Legislature wouldn’t have approved Measure 49 if voters hadn’t supported Measure 37 first. If lawmakers have demonstrated anything when it comes to land-use reform, it’s that it takes a bulldozer to move them an inch.”
No kidding.
Prior to Measure 37, every effort to change the Oregon land-use system to correct some of its most glaring inequities was met with opposition by the same urban legislators and groups who supported Measure 49.
But thanks to Measure 37, those inequities are no longer being ignored. Finally, there seems to be universal recognition that our laws must change. It took 34 years, but the time has arrived.
Thanks to Measure 37, the governor, Senate president and speaker of the House formed the “Big Look” task force to review Oregon’s land-use laws and recommend changes. The task force was well into its work in doing just that when its funding was mysteriously cut by the Legislature. Funding for that Big Look should be fully restored.
So now is not the time for gloom and doom. Today, despite the passage of Measure 49, Oregon property owners have far more property rights than they did a decade ago, thanks to Measure 56 (land-use notification), Measure 7 (compensation), Measure 37, and Measure 39 (protection from eminent domain). Now is the time to hold Measure 49’s proponents to their word.
Measure 37 was a giant leap forward. Measure 49 is a small step backward. That’s a win. If we keep fighting, better days are ahead.
Dave Hunnicutt is president of Oregonians in Action, sponsor of Measure 37.