Oregon voters roll back Measure 37

By a margin of 62 to 38 percent, Oregon voters last month resoundingly rolled back many of the effects of a 2004 ballot measure that had weakened land-use planning. Three years ago, a ballot initiative known as Measure 37 required governments to pay property owners when certain land-use restrictions reduced their property value. If the government was not willing to pay, it had to forgo enforcement of the restrictions. The result of that measure has been more than 7,500 claims for new subdivisions on over 800,000 acres, some of them involving the best farm and forest land in the state.

Whereas Measure 37 proponents portrayed it as a fundamental issue of fairness to small landowners, the result has been large claims, particularly from timber companies and other large landowners. Unhappy with the results, Oregonians this November passed Measure 49. The new law allows owners to construct up to three houses by right if they purchased their property prior to imposition of more restrictive regulations.

Up to 10 houses are allowed if owners can demonstrate that their property lost value because of regulations imposed since they purchased it. However, larger subdivisions, shopping centers, and industrial plants will be prohibited in areas that governments had tried to protect from those kinds of development. “While this is unlikely to be the last skirmish over property rights in the state, it goes a long way toward addressing the issues that voters believed they were resolving with Measure 37,” said Ethan Seltzer, director of the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University.