BY ALAN PITTMAN
Envision Oregon
1000 Friends asks if y’all wants sprawl
be transferred to new owners.
Stacey said fast track approval should be
limited to permitting one house, as he be-
lieves voters intended in passing Measure 37.
He said the stricter valuation method would
be based on determining the value of the land
before the regulations went into effect, and
then inflating that value to the current year.
The method, based on a study by an OSU
economist, “is the only defensible method,”
he said.
Such a valuation method would likely re-
sult in the denial of many claims, especially
the larger ones by corporations and timber
companies, Stacey said. But Stacey said that
some large claims near cities would still
likely go through.
The method would also indirectly take
into account the fact that if Measure 37 in-
creases the supply of buildable land beyond
current demand, that land is worth less, ac-
cording to Stacey. “You got to look at the
7,499 other claimants,” Stacey said. “Most
people didn’t have any adverse effect on their
value” from regulation.
With the state’s 30-year-old land-use
planning system, the value of non-devel-
opable land in Oregon has increased far faster
than inflation, other investments, or similar
land in neighboring states, Stacey said. “The
idea that our land-use planning has ruined
people’s lives is hokey,” he said.
Stacey said he’d also like to see an
amendment to make Measure 37 not apply to
future regulations. Land owners already have
“big protections” from sudden new land use
rules with notice requirements and a provi-
sion allowing a six month window allowing
builders to use the old rules, he argues.
Without changing Measure 37, “a commu-
nity is never able to change direction” with
new rules to respond to changing conditions
or popular opinion, he said.
He said passage of the Measure 37 reform
package in the Legislature “is predictably
going to be tight.” Republicans now oppose
But Stacey said Springfield does have
some “legitimate concerns” about the need to
update the land supply numbers for the re-
gion. However, he said the need to accommo-
date more housing might be met by increas-
ing density.
Stacey said developers pushed the
Legislature to require Portland to update its
land supply every five years. The city wants
the requirement reset at 10 years and may end
up compromising at seven, according to
Stacey. Salem and Keizer have regional plan-
ning, with the Marion County Commission
having the final say, Stacey said. The state
LCDC land use agency should also play a
stronger role in settling disputes, he said.
Stacey said that if Eugene and Springfield
can’t agree, the Lane County Commission
should decide the sprawl question.
But the County Commission has histori-
cally shown little interest in controlling
sprawl. A commission vote would also have
commissioners who represent rural areas im-
‘The idea that our land-use planning
has ruined people’s lives is hokey.’
— B OB S TACEY , DIRECTOR OF 1000 F RIENDS OF O REGON
by self-financing their projects. To effectively
transfer the waivers to home buyers, real es-
tate lawyers may develop complicated joint
venture or other “work-around schemes,” he
said. “There’re still some problems.”
The local area has its own land use prob-
lems beyond Measure 37. Local developers
and the city of Springfield are pushing for a
bill in the Legislature to break up coordinated
local land use planning. The bill would allow
Springfield to sprawl beyond the regional
urban growth boundary (UGB) without get-
ting approval from Eugene.
Stacey called the Springfield go-it-alone
approach “goofy” for a metropolitan region.
“We’re in this together, we’re talking about
the same homes, the same jobs.”
posing a costly decision on urban residents.
The region also failed to come together to
support a Region 2050 planning process for
the area last year. But Stacey said the 2050
plan was looking toward very low density
rural sprawl. When it fell apart, “some people
were relieved.”
The passage of Measure 37 raised the
question of whether people still support con-
trolling sprawl in Oregon. But Stacey said the
polls show people saying they still support
the fair land use planning 1000 Friends envi-
sions for Oregon. “Yeah, government has to
treat people fairly, but yeah, we need to have
land use planning.”
ew
For information on the Envision Oregon meeting, surf to
envisionoregon.org or call (503) 497-1000.
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W
ith thousands of Measure 37
claims threatening to exacerbate
urban sprawl, the state’s leading
land-use planning advocacy group has called
for a town hall meeting in Eugene May 3 to
envision the Oregon citizens want.
Bob Stacey, director of 1000 Friends of
Oregon, said he hopes to have 100 to 200
local citizens attend the meeting from 6 pm to
9 pm at the UO Recreation Center Bonus
Room next to Hayward Field.
Oregon will add 2 million more people in
the next 40 years, a big increase from the 2.5
million residents now, Stacey said. The
Envision Oregon meetings here and around
the state are about “planning for a future that
is not disrupted by growth but is strengthened
by growth,” Stacey said. “What does it mean
to have compact community development? Is
that what Oregonians want?” he asked.
The meeting will explore changes in the
economy with globalization, climate change
and higher energy costs, he said. For exam-
ple, some say agriculture and forestry will not
be as important to the state’s future, but oth-
ers say that with higher energy costs, agricul-
ture near our population will become more
important.
The 1000 Friends group hopes to use the
meeting as a “two-way street” to educate the
public and gather feedback that they can pass
on to the state Legislature.
The Legislature now has a task force
that’s working on a bill to address the flood of
7,500 Measure 37 claims to provide compen-
sation or waive development restrictions that
protect against sprawl.
Stacey said while the task force’s “general
thrust is an improvement,” he has “mixed
feelings” about what’s being proposed by the
group and would like to see amendments.
The proposed legislation would allow quick
approval of up to three houses. Larger devel-
opment would have to prove that regulations
caused a loss in land value using a stricter
valuation method. Regulation waivers could
the proposal along with the pro-sprawl group
Oregonians in Action. OIA has “an ideological
opposition to all land-use planning,” Stacey
said. But Democrats hold a narrow majority,
and with thousands of claims nearing dead-
lines, Stacey said he’s “optimistic” that a re-
form measure could pass by next month.
If the Legislature fails to act soon, Stacey
said, “then we expect to see ourselves run-
ning a ballot measure in 2007” to reform
Measure 37.
The Oregon Supreme Court could also
rule that Measure 37 claims aren’t transfer-
able to new owners, which could effectively
gut most of the big claims. Stacey said he be-
lieves the high court is likely to agree with the
position two lower courts and the attorney
general have taken that claims aren’t transfer-
able.
But Stacey said even with such a ruling,
there’s a risk that developers would get around
the restriction. Corporate developers could
avoid bank problems the ruling might create
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