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Farm Zoning and Fairness in Oregon 1964 - 2014

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/defaults/7s75dh13g

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  • Senate Bill 100 (1973) and the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission’s (LCDC) goals (1975) required: - Cities to adopt urban growth boundaries (UGBs) to contain sprawl, and - Counties to use zoning to limit 15.6 million acres of farmland to farm use, and 8.0 million acres of forest land to forest use. After eight statewide votes, many “fairness” adjustments by the legislature, and thousands of local debates, Senate Bill 100 has survived. More important, 36 counties and 241 cities have implemented LCDC’s Goals -- a nationally unprecedented state land use policy success story. Opponents said the law was unfair. They claimed limitations on farm and forest land would result in sweeping loss of market value. Opponents pushed to repeal or gut the law in nearly every legislative session, beginning in 1975. Failing there, opponents placed seven initiative measures on the ballot to repeal the law -- 1970, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1996, 2000, 2004. Three factors show Oregon’s land use laws have been fair for the vast majority of farm land owners: - Compensation: $5.75 billion compensation in the form of reduced property taxes, 1974 - 2014 (Table 19, p. 44); - Strong growth in farmland market value: 5.52% faster than the S & P 500 statewide, 1964 - 2012 (Table 6, p. 31); - ‘Fairness’ Adjustments and the Law: Oregonians believe in fairness. They also want Oregon’s land use laws implemented. Forty years of votes in the legislature and at the ballot box show Oregonians want the laws adjusted, not repealed, so fairness and Oregon’s land use goals both can be achieved. Section IV (pp. 4 - 13) describes how the legislature and the LCDC added numerous elements of flexibility to Oregon’s land use law to avoid or remedy unfairness. Opponents claimed Oregon’s land use laws were out of date, and had “ossified.” To the contrary, from 1975 - 2005, the legislature altered state, city, and county planning laws 1,071 times,2 likely more changes than to any other single body of state law.
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  • See Related Document: Oregon's public investment in conservation, prosperity and fairness
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  • S. S. Johnson Foundation
  • David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  • Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust
  • American Conservation Association
  • Peter Jay Sharp Foundation
  • Columbia River Environmental Foundation
  • Wyss Foundation
  • Robert C. and Nani S. Warren Foundation
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file details FarmZoningAndFairnessInOregon.pdf 2017-09-26 Public Download