Thursday, March 17, 2005
Oregon house eases land-use laws
In an effort to close the barn door after the horse has escaped, the Oregon House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing people to build a house on their own land if they had a right to do so when they bought the land. Since Oregon land-use laws have progressively restricted such rights -- first with 40-acre minimum lot sizes, then 160-acre minimums, then a requirement that people actually farm land before they can live on it, and finally a requirement that the earn $40,000 to $80,000 a year farming it -- this would relax those restrictions for many people.
The problem is that this bill doesn't do much that measure 37, which voters approved last November, doesn't already do. At best, the house bill would slightly reduce the red tape involved in getting a permit to build.
Some people hope the bill will reduce criticism of Oregon's land-use planning process. "Had this bill passed in the last legislative session, we might not have had Measure 37 on the ballot, so it is a very key bill," says one representative. More accurately, it would have been a key bill if it had passed in the last legislature, but now it is just an afterthought.
To add insult to injury, observers expect that the state senate will pass the bill with a restriction that someone who owns land subdivided into several lots will be allowed to build only one house on those lots, not one house per lot. Since measure 37 would almost certainly allow someone to build one home per lot, such an amendment would render the bill even more meaningless than it already is.
If you are interested in following the local implementation of measure 37, Oregon Watchdog has daily reports from throughout the state.
The problem is that this bill doesn't do much that measure 37, which voters approved last November, doesn't already do. At best, the house bill would slightly reduce the red tape involved in getting a permit to build.
Some people hope the bill will reduce criticism of Oregon's land-use planning process. "Had this bill passed in the last legislative session, we might not have had Measure 37 on the ballot, so it is a very key bill," says one representative. More accurately, it would have been a key bill if it had passed in the last legislature, but now it is just an afterthought.
To add insult to injury, observers expect that the state senate will pass the bill with a restriction that someone who owns land subdivided into several lots will be allowed to build only one house on those lots, not one house per lot. Since measure 37 would almost certainly allow someone to build one home per lot, such an amendment would render the bill even more meaningless than it already is.
If you are interested in following the local implementation of measure 37, Oregon Watchdog has daily reports from throughout the state.
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