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Oregon
Uneven Enforcement of Measure 37 Property Rights Claims Reported in Oregon
In the first six months since Oregon's loosely worded but voter-approved Measure 37 let property owners seek compensation for land value losses due to zoning and other controls or get exemption from such rules, they filed over 1,000 claims statewide and obtained more than 100 waivers from cash-strapped governments, 34 of them in rural Yamhill County, where two of three commissioners, reports Associated Press writer Brad Cain, support the property-rights movement.
''It's party time for the claimants, and commissioners (Leslie) Lewis and (Kathy) George are only too happy to help them out,'' observes 1000 Friends of Oregon executive director Bob Stacey, with local planners concerned that the claims affect more than 10,000 acres, potentially opening to development much of the land that now grows the state's excellent pinot noir grape.
On the other hand, Portland officials are being careful and may deny claims against the city's environmental zones if the restrictions are necessary to protect public health and safety, the writer finds, quoting Commissioner Sam Adams, who dislikes Measure 37 and calls it ''poorly written'' and ''incoherent,'' thus difficult to interpret and implement.
The measure's chief promoter, property-rights activist Dave Hunicutt, bypasses the issue of its clarity and attributes its uneven application across the state to ''foot-dragging'' by opponents among city and county officials. Upbeat about prospects of similar legislation elsewhere, he says he spoke in several states where it has been introduced, including Florida, South Carolina, Minnesota and California, adding that Washington state property-rights activists are preparing their initiative for the 2006 ballot.
Smart growth advocates and conservationists, the writer reports, worry that if successful in other states, such measures may indeed hurt anti-sprawl efforts. Measure 37 claims range ''from putting an extra house on a farm to building a casino,'' he notes, citing the case of Helen Garner, 80, who was recently allowed to divide her 134 acres in the Cascade foothills, southern Oregon, into two dozen 5-acre parcels and sell them for housing.
State lawmakers, the writer adds, want to clarify the law, but the Democratic-led Senate failed to win support from groups on both sides of the issue and gave up on a bill that would have precisely defined claimant eligibility, created a compensation fund, and set up a claims process. Now, the Republican-led House is trying to draw up such legislation. 6/4/2005
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