Oregon's Outdoors Reports

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Executive Summary

Oregon is a state deeply connected to its farmland. Oregon has 40,000 farm businesses, primarily family-owned. And urban Oregonians are increasingly connected to local agriculture as
they express ever-stronger interest in locally-grown foods.

While voters intended Measure 37 to provide basic fairness for landowners, it has unfortunately brought unfairness for many neighbors as well as a significant new threat to Oregon farmers:
Measure 37 development claims on farm land total more than 500,000 acres, nearly 40% more than the largest amount of farm land lost in any 5-year period since 1982. On average, Oregon lost about 165,000 acres of farm land in each five-year period between 1982 and 2002—Measure 37 claims thus total more than three times the average amount of land lost in a five-year period.

More than 70% of the acreage is proposed for housing  subdivisions rather than “a home or two” for neighbors’ families.
There are 4,922 claims for development on farm land. If each claimant only has 2 neighboring farms, almost 10,000 Oregon farm properties could be facing new conflicts with non-farm uses as new neighbors complain, or even sue farmers, over the noise, dust, and spraying at odd hours that go along with basic farm operations.

The situation facing Oregon’s farm land is urgent: Measure 37 claimants who have already received their waivers have applied for 171 subdivisions on more than 11,000 acres.

While virtually every corner of the state is faced with the tensions created by Measure 37 claims, prime farming areas are among the hardest hit. More than 12% of Willamette Valley farmland is
under Measure 37 claim – nearly 1 in 8 acres. And certain counties face the biggest threats: nearly 25% of farmland in Washington and Hood River1 counties is under Measure 37 claim.

Measure 49 will protect the majority of farmland threatened with development: measure 49 will limit the developments that take the most farmland out of farming and that create the greatest
conflicts for their neighbors – large subdivisions (more than 10 homes) and commercial uses, such as gravel pits and strip malls. For the 70% of the farmland acres proposed for Measure 37
subdivision development (364,462 acres), claimants will have to choose between smaller developments (3 or fewer homes) or document that they have lost property value in order to
proceed with more than 3 homes.

Measure 49 also requires development on high-value farmland to be limited in lot size and clustered to allow continued farm use for the remainder of the land.