Oregon's Land-Use Planning Prevails in Special Election

Oregonians have embraced land-use planning as a tool to promote sustainable development and prevent the runaway urban sprawl seen in many cities throughout the United States. Smart development is focused within Urban Growth Boundaries so that farms and forests are not subject to the pressures of development, thus helping to protect Oregon’s distinctive natural landscape and sense of place and the state’s burgeoning industry in local food, wine, and natural products.

The interests of Oregon for today and in the future must be protected from grasping wastrels of the land. We must respect another truism: that unlimited and unregulated growth leads inexorably to a lowered quality of life.
--Oregon Governor Tom McCall, 1973

This 30-year legacy of sound planning was jeopardized by the passage of Measure 37, enacted by ballot measure in November 2006. Measure 37 (M37) required that compensation be paid for the loss of value on farm and forest land due to zoning if the land was purchased prior to statewide zoning’s adoption in the early 1970s. If the governmental entity was not able to pay that compensation, then the regulations would be waived for development. Most jurisdictions had to opt for waivers, lacking the funds to compensate every applicant for often inflated requests. Many supporters of M37 were unhappy to learn that the measure could allow large subdivisions, billboards, and commercial developments in their neighborhoods, when they may have only wished to allow individual landowners the right to build a single house.

Once some Oregonians realized the full implications of M37, there was a movement enacted to reverse or fix the measure. After much legal wrangling and political debate, Measure 49 was placed on the November 2007 ballot by the state legislature to fix and clarify Measure 37. The Executive Committee of the Oregon Chapter of ASLA discussed the language of the measure internally and with allied organizations such as AIA and decided to actively advocate for the passage of Measure 49 (M49).

The Oregon Chapter believes that landscape architecture is a profession fundamentally committed to environmental stewardship. We do not want to see farmland, forest, and natural areas cleared to make way for inappropriate and incompatible developments. Instead, the Oregon Chapter wants to maintain Oregon's status as the “environmental model for the nation.”

The Oregon ASLA chapter and its AIA counterpart distributed information about M49 and publicized volunteer opportunities. Landscape architecture firm Walker Macy hosted an M49 “house party,” inviting fellow landscape architects and other design professionals to learn about the measure and encourage them to participate in the campaign. Phone banking was scheduled to get as many landscape architects as possible to call voters and remind them to vote. The chapter wrote articles in local papers and magazines in favor of M49 and shared information about the measure with friends, family, and colleagues.

Their work was rewarded when Measure 49 passed with a 62 percent vote on November 6, 2007. The final voting maps showed that M49 garnered widespread support in both urban and rural agricultural areas.

The work is far from over for Oregon and other states with similar issues. There is no doubt that sound land-use planning will be challenged again in Oregon and elsewhere. The Oregon Chapter encourages landscape architects to become leaders in political issues affecting their communities and environments.