A bill in the Oregon Legislature proposes putting most Measure 37 claims on hold while the legislature debates and analyzes the impacts of the measure on the state.
If passed, Senate Bill 505 creates an “express line” for claimants with plans to build a single home on their property to move forward with development. Other claims, applying mostly to large-scale development projects, would be held until June 30.
The bill, introduced by state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, and state Rep. Greg Macpherson, D-Lake Oswego, was put forward at the request of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who said the intent of the bill is to address the flood of Measure 37 claims that were filed in 2006.
Measure 37, which passed in November 2004, gives more rights to property owners to develop their property by requiring state and local governments to either waive land-use regulations or to compensate the owners for lost value because of land-use restrictions. Governments have to make a decision on each claim within 180 days.
Prozanski said the bill would give enough time for the legislature to study Measure 37’s effects on the state and to stop the many lawsuits filed over the claim, which have complicated the negotiations over the measure.
Kulongoski and opponents of Measure 37 have contended that it created an unexpected rush to development, which was not the intention of the voters who voted for it.
Eric Stachon, a spokesman for the Measure 37 opposition group, 1000 Friends of Oregon, said the bill is a crucial first step to overall reform because it gives a timetable for the legislature to look at the full impact and unintended consequences of Measure 37.
“This is the last shot we have to deal with this measure,” Stachon said.
However, proponents such as Oregonians in Action and Measure 37 Claimants for Fairness have said that the bill is an unfair attack on a measure that passed with a majority vote.
Jim Zupancic, president of Measure 37 Claimants for Fairness, said the bill works against the majority of claimants who want to have their claim processed, even if they’re not developers.
He said some reform of the measure is needed, such as an extension of the 180-day timetable, but it should be done through debate and bipartisanship.
About 6,350 claims covering more than 500,000 acres in Oregon have been filed as of January 2007, according to Portland State University’s Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. The vast majority of claims were filed in northwestern Oregon and in the Willamette Valley.
Most claims were filed before a Dec. 2 deadline that changed the process for filing a claim.
Lane County received 395 applications as of Dec. 4, said Kent Howe, planning director with the Lane County Land Management Division. He said 275 of the claims came in the month of November, shortly before the December deadline.
Howe said the county is scheduled to conduct public hearing on several dozen claims every Tuesday in order to meet the 180-day deadline for a decision on each claim by May. The bill’s passage would reduce the number to around 20 claims.
The bill is currently hearing public testimony in the Land Use Fairness Committee, Prozanski said. The earliest scheduled vote could come next week, after which it would be voted on in the state Senate and House, he said.
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