Measure 37 town hall on tap

By Greg Macpherson

, Feb 8, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Last week I presided over a packed room in the state Capitol hearing testimony from Oregonians who are angry about Measure 37. Some complained that they still can’t build a home on their property despite having received a waiver under the measure.

Most others were upset about the amount of development it may allow. No one liked how Measure 37 stands now.

I presided over that hearing as co-chair of the Joint Special Committee on Land Use Fairness in the current legislative session. The committee was appointed to fix the flaws in Measure 37, passed by initiative in 2004.

The measure requires public entities to pay compensation to owners of property reduced in value by land use restrictions or to waive those restrictions. Because Measure 37 did not identify a funding source, no compensation has been paid to any property owner. Claims under the measure are all about waiver of land use restrictions.

Over 7,000 claims have been filed under Measure 37, mostly with the state and with counties by landowners seeking to build houses on farm and forest land outside urban growth boundaries. The stakes were raised substantially last fall as a procedural deadline approached. Over half of all the claims made during the first two years of the measure were filed in the five weeks ending Dec. 4.

The recent claims include some covering large acreages. Plum Creek Timber Co. filed claims on over 32,000 acres of timberland in the coast range.

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