By Matt Neznanski
Gazette-Times reporter
Pro-conservation
groups this week released back-to-back studies charging that Measure 37
threatens high-value Willamette Valley farmland and Oregon’s growing
wine industry.
The studies, conducted by Environment Oregon and
the American Land Institute, also claim that the changes proposed in
the Nov. 6 ballot Measure 49 would fix the problems.
“When
voters considered Measure 37 in 2004, what it would do was a guessing
game,” reads the American Land Institute report. “The guessing game is
over.”
The
American Land Institute report, written by Henry Richmond, Portland
attorney and co-founder of 1000 Friends of Oregon, found that 61
percent of Measure 37 claims were located in the Willamette Valley.
That’s where the Environment Oregon report picks up.
While
the Willamette Valley only makes up 9.5 percent of the state’s total
agricultural land, the report said it makes up about half of Oregon’s
“high value” farmland, where the greatest number of Oregon wineries are
located.
“Nearly one in seven acres of land subject to Measure
37 claims qualifies as high-value potential vineyard land,” according
to the Environment Oregon report.
Measure 37 claims allow land
owners to seek land use waivers or monetary compensation if property
values are reduced because of land use regulations.
Among
Measure 49 provisions are a limit on the number of lots allowed on
high-value farm or forest land, or where groundwater use is restricted.
The measure also demands a more accurate tally of how land value was
reduced.
Benton County claims comprise more than 10,500 acres.
County planners say the claims increase the potential for residential
development by 50 percent.
Willamette Valley claims total more
than 266,000 acres. Washington County lists the greatest number of
acres impacted by Measure 37 at 62,246. Multnomah County has the
smallest number of affected acres with just 4,024.
Both reports
are largely based on a database of Measure 37 claims built and
monitored by Portland State University’s Institute for Metropolitan
Studies.
The nonprofit advocacy group 1000 Friends of Oregon
focuses on land use issues. Environment Oregon is the environmental
activism arm of the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, a
public health lobbyist organization.
Arguments against Measure
49 — primarily voiced by Oregonians in Action, a property-rights
advocacy group — contend that it takes the teeth out of Measure 37 and
brings back land use regulations voters nullified through its passage.
Reporter Matt Neznanski can be reached at 758-9518 or matt.neznanski@lee.net.
