Oregon to review controversial land-use policies

SALEM, – Gov. Ted Kulongoski and legislative leaders Thursday announced the 10 members who will serve on a task force to conduct a major review of Oregon’s statewide land use planning system that was the target of a 2004 property rights revolt.

Members of the so-called “big look” task force will include local government officials, a timber company lawyer, business owners and a land-use attorney.

Conspicuously absent from the list is anyone directly associated with either of the two main warring groups in Oregon’s land-use battle – the pro-planning group 1000 Friends of Oregon and the property rights group Oregonians in Action.

At a news conference, Kulongoski said he and legislative leaders sought to bring together a group of “knowledgeable people” from various parts of the state and backgrounds to re-examine and try to revitalize Oregon’s pioneering land planning program.

“If this group comes together, I think it will carry tremendous weight” in proposing possible changes to the land-use system, the governor said.

The 2005 Legislature created the panel after lawmakers couldn’t come to an agreement on how to rewrite Measure 37, a property rights initiative that was approved by Oregon voters in November 2004.

That law, which was struck down by a Marion County judge and is on appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, requires governments to waive land use regulations or pay property owners if their land has been devalued by regulations adopted after they purchased the properties.

Kulongoski said he hopes the legal challenge to Measure 37 won’t overshadow or dominate the new task force’s mission to come up with recommendations to possibly revamp Oregon’s land planning system to adapt to a changing, growing state.

1000 Friends and Oregonians in Action, the two groups that spent the 2005 Legislature locked in battle over proposed changes to Measure 37, both said Thursday that they generally were satisfied with the appointments to the task force.

“If this thing is going to work, both sides have to get out of the way and let the task force members do their work,” said Ross Day, the legal director for Oregonians in Action, which led the campaign for voter passage of Measure 37.

1000 Friends spokesman Elon Hasson said his group is optimistic that the task force will agree on substantive changes and, in the process, build public support for the land use program.

“It’s remarkable that the task force is not really slanted one way or the other,” Hasson said.

Senate President Peter Courtney, who made the appointments along with Kulongoski and House Speaker Karen Minnis, predicted the task force will agree to some key changes to a program that’s been criticized for its “one-size-fits-all” approach to managing development statewide.

“There will be less restrictions in some parts of the state,” said the Salem Democrat, who is a strong supporter of the overall land planning system.

Among those named to the task force were Ken Bailey, vice president of Orchard View Farms in The Dalles; David Bragdon, president of the Portland area’s Metro Council; Steve Clark, president and publisher of a group of 19 weekly and monthly and community newspapers in the Portland area; Jill Gelineau, a lawyer who represents landowners in condemnation and land use litigation; and Judie Hammerstad, a former state lawmaker who is mayor of Lake Oswego.

The other appointees are Albany City Manager Wes Hare; Cameron Krauss, the general counsel for Swanson Group Inc., a forest products company; Gretchen Palmer, co-owner of Palmer Homes in Bend; Mike Thorne, a Pendleton rancher and former state lawmaker who also served as executive director of the Port of Portland; and Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty.