March 17, 2017
Bills would ease
new dwellings
on farmland
Critics say the proposals
would disrupt agriculture
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Two bills aimed at ex-
panding affordable housing in rural
Oregon would make it easier to build
dwellings or permanently reside in rec-
reational vehicles on farmland.
Advocates of House bills 2937 and
2938 say the proposals would help miti-
gate the state’s housing shortage without
undermining protections for farmland.
However, critics argue the bills would
disrupt agricultural operations without
having much impact on housing and
could be counterproductive by encourag-
ing short-term rentals.
“It’s just not the best use of farmland,”
said Mary Anne Nash, public policy
counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Proponents of the bills said lawmakers
need to be creative in finding solutions to
Oregon’s housing problem.
There are limits to what can be accom-
plished with legislation focused on land-
lord-tenant relations, said Julie Parrish,
R-West Linn, during a March 14 legisla-
tive hearing.
“It doesn’t put new units in the mix,”
she said.
Oregon’s land use system was intend-
ed to preserve farmland but not to create
insufficient housing and perpetuate home-
lessness, Parrish said.
Meanwhile, HB 2937 and 2938 have
restrictions that limit new dwellings and
won’t “upset the land use apple cart in any
significant way,” she said.
Under HB 2937, a single “accessory
dwelling” can be sited within 100 feet
of an existing home in a rural residential
zone, or in a “exclusive farm use” zone
with a county conditional use permit.
The same conditions apply to a single
recreational vehicle used for “residential
purposes” under HB 2938.
County governments can decide wheth-
er or not to incorporate these provisions
into their land use plans and they’re also
free to place additional restrictions on ac-
cessory dwellings and recreational vehi-
cles sited in farm zones, according to sup-
porters.
“The opportunity to be bold is there.
You’re going to take political arrows either
way,” said Shawn Cleave, government af-
fairs director for the Oregon Association of
Realtors.
Critics of the proposals say that afford-
able housing is needed more near cities
where residents have access to jobs, trans-
portation and other services, rather than in
remote rural areas.
More people living in the countryside
also means strains will increase on local
road and water systems, opponents said.
Neither bill requires housing to be
provided at affordable rates or to resi-
dents with low incomes, said Mary Kyle
McCurdy, deputy director of the 1,000
Friends of Oregon, a nonprofit that sup-
ports Oregon’s land use system.
The proposals don’t prohibit landown-
ers from using the dwellings for short-
term vacation rentals, which often crowd
out long-term rentals, McCurdy said.
Even if the bills contained such provi-
sions, they’d be difficult to enforce given
the rural locations of the dwellings, she said.
The profitability of short-term rentals
has caused them to proliferate in Hood
River County, where farming is already
challenging because of the small size of
farm parcels, said Mike McCarthy, an or-
chardist in the county.
Farm practices are often incompatible
with residential uses and growers must
comply with federal restrictions that pro-
hibit spraying pesticides near dwellings,
McCarthy said.
CapitalPress.com
5
Washington lawmaker not on
board with hiking beef checkoff
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A proposal to
double the Washington Beef Com-
mission’s budget has not won sup-
port from a House member who’s
been chewing on the subject for
months.
The Senate already has passed
a bill to increase the beef check-
off to $2.50 from $1.50. While 50
cents would still go to the national
Cattlemen’s Beef Board, the added
dollar would go to the state com-
mission. The increase would boost
the commission’s annual budget to
about $2 million from $1 million.
The measure now goes to the
House, where Rep. Tom Dent,
R-Moses Lake, told colleagues last
year he would meet with producers
to talk over the idea.
Dent said Thursday he would
“hard-pressed” to support a dollar
increase. “That would double the
budget,” he said. “That’s a lot.”
The per head fee, paid by cat-
tle sellers, has been the same since
2001.
The Washington Cattlemen’s
Association, Cattle Feeders of
Washington and the Washington
State Dairy Federation support the
fee increase as a vital contribution
to burnishing beef’s image in an
age of internet misinformation.
The Cattle Producers of Wash-
ington opposes the fee increase,
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington state Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, says he doubts a proposal
to double the Beef Commission’s budget will pass the House.
arguing ranches don’t get enough
benefit or enough information
about how their money is being
spent.
Sen. Judy Warnick, also a Mo-
ses Lake Republican, joined Dent
in meeting extensively over the
past year with producers.
Warnick came down in favor of
the fee increase, a decision that she
acknowledged was not universal-
ly embraced by cattlemen. “It is a
decision I did not take lightly,” she
said.
Dent said he might consid-
er backing a phased-in increase,
though he said that would depend
on the Senate passing his Beef
Commission bill. The measure
would leave the checkoff at $1.50,
while requiring the commission to
present a “detailed and explanato-
ry” budget.
“My bill has to get to the gover-
nor’s desk, or I won’t do anything,”
Dent said.
The bill has passed the House
and will have a hearing Thursday
by the Senate agriculture commit-
tee, which Warnick chairs.
The commission’s executive
director, Patti Brumbach, said she
would have no problem complying
with Dent’s bill.
“Anyway we can improve our
communication, we welcome,” she
said.
Many cattlemen have come to
Olympia to testify in support of
raising the beef checkoff.
“We’re very, very proud to come
with a substantial coalition of other
livestock groups that are in favor of
this legislation,” said Washington
Cattlemen’s Association President
Tyler Cox, a Walla Walla rancher.
The Washington Farm Bureau
also has gotten involved, sending
an email alert asking its members
to support Warnick’s bill.
Cattle Producers of Washing-
ton President Scott Nielsen said in
an interview that the ranchers he’s
spoken to overwhelming oppose
the increase.
“I do not believe it would be
supported by a majority of the peo-
ple,” he said. “They could put it to a
vote. I believe it would fail.”
Brumbach said a vote would be
expensive and logistically difficult,
and the final decision would still
rest with the Legislature.
Missouri cattlemen last year
voted down a proposal to raise that
state’s beef checkoff by $1.
The Missouri Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation, Missouri Farm Bureau and
two dairy groups supported hiking
the fee. Some 6,565 producers vot-
ed, and 75 percent said “no.”
Ag group aims to start Eastern Idaho virtual farmers’ market
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
DRIGGS, Idaho — An orga-
nization that recently formed to
create marketing opportunities
for locally produced food plans to
start a web-based virtual farmers’
market, with the goal of serving a
four-county area.
Participants in the Teton Food
and Farm Coalition, which started
on Dec. 16, 2016, meet monthly
to discuss ways to link area food
producers with distributors, restau-
rants, processors and others in-
volved in the local food system.
Participants include Universi-
ty of Idaho, Teton Valley Farmers
Market, the City of Driggs, large-
and small-scale producers, High
Country Resource Conservation &
Development, and a pair of non-
profits devoted to local food — Full
Circle Education and Slow Food in
the Tetons.
The coalition will apply for a
Courtesy of University of Idaho Extension
roughly $250,000 grant through A hot air balloon flies over the Teton Valley Farmers’ Market in Driggs, Idaho. Members of a new organization based in
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Driggs aim to create a virtual farmers’ market serving four counties.
Service to expand direct sales of lo-
cal food, hire a coordinator for their Slow Food would oversee the daily 50 acres. Half of the producers ers, we’re still willing to help,”
organization and fund development operations of the virtual farmers’ surveyed estimated at least 76 Penfold said.
percent of their products were
of the virtual farmers’ market. The market.
University of Idaho Teton
“Anything that can make the consumed locally.
project would seek to develop both
County Extension educator Jen-
Wyatt Penfold, who has a large nifer Werlin, who started her job
a print directory of producers and agricultural sector stronger is
an online forum marketing goods something High Country is very farm in Driggs, said his 16-year-old last April, said she’s specializing
from producers in Teton County, interested in,” said High Country son Alex will attend the coalition’s in community food systems largely
Idaho, and Teton County, Wyo., Executive Coordinator Pam Her- meetings on behalf of his farm and based on the results of the agricul-
the Farm Bureau.
eventually expanding into Idaho’s drich.
tural assessment. Werlin believes
Penfold has sold barley direct- the virtual farmers’ market has the
Herdrich explained awareness
Fremont and Madison counties.
Customers would pick up their pro- of local food opportunities came ly to local microbreweries and potential to serve more than 100
duce and goods from central loca- from a 2014 regional agricultur- envisions the virtual market could producers within a 100-mile radius
al assessment her organization help move some of his quinoa. But of Driggs.
tions.
The grant will be submitted un- led, with funding from the De- he believes the virtual market will
“We have quite a local food
der the nonprofit umbrella of High partment of Housing and Urban offer the greatest opportunities to movement happening in the area,”
Country RC&D, which provides Development. The assessment small-scale producers.
Werlin said. “We’re looking at sev-
“I’m going to stay involved in eral different federal, state and local
technical assistance and support found 20 percent of regional
to projects that improve local sus- farms were larger than 500 acres, it because it’s a great tool for the grant opportunities that will help
tainable economies and agriculture. while 40 percent were less than community to show as larger farm- build our local food economy.”
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