Planning, land-use issues forum topic
From our weekly issue dated July 29, 2009
Issues surrounding planning and land-use were the main topics during a town hall meeting conducted on the evening of Wednesday, July 22 at Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
Approximately 30 people attended the forum, which featured a panel of speakers with a variety of perspectives.
Robert Harada from the Josephine County Planning Dept. stated that he also has worked in Jackson County’s planning office. He said that he originally came from California, which does not have comprehensive statewide land-use policies.
Harada said that often times, counties and cities are limited by state regulations. That can be a frustrating experience for planning officials, he said.
“I sympathize with people,” Harada said. “I can tell you; no planner enjoys denying anything.”
Bob Hart spoke of his 17 years with the Josephine County planning office and subsequent experience as a private land-use consultant.
Josephine County adopted its development code in 1958, Hart said, and adopted a 63-page zoning document in 1973.
“Then the state got involved,” Hart said.
The county’s regulations since have grown to 380 pages, and the state’s are now 541, Hart said. He noted that more burdens have been placed on applicants throughout the years.
Hart said that the planning office used to work directly with applicants to solve any potential issues, but that the process has since become “a lot more bureaucratic and a lot less user-friendly.”
Harold Haugen, a former longtime Josephine County commissioner, said that land-use issues were part of the reason he first decided to run for office in 1978. He recalled attending several “horrendous” meetings in the 1970s regarding land-use.
Oregon’s land-use laws have become an “adversarial system,” Haugen said.
Measure 37, passed by Oregon voters in 2004, was a “breath of fresh air,” Haugen said, and would have returned some aspects of land-use planning back to local municipalities. But voters passed Measure 49 in 2007.
“All it did was give control back to the state of Oregon,” Haugen said.
The veteran politician said that one of the biggest problems with Oregon’s land-use policies is that standing on any appeal can be given to literally anyone in the world.
Gordon Longhurst, who has been building houses in Josephine County since the mid-1970s, said that he has “been on both sides” of the land-use debate.
He said that he originally came from Washington County, in which many acres of prime farmland were converted into housing units as the state’s population grew. He said that as a result, he supported implementation of more planning policies.
Counties need greater land-use flexibility from the state, Longhurst said, while cautioning that Southern Oregon residents always will be outvoted politically by citizens from Willamette Valley.
However, Longhurst said that there are reforms that can be made at the local level to make the whole process a lot less burdensome.
Margaret Goodwin, a member of the Josephine County chapter of the national grass-roots organization, Americans for Prosperity, said that government actions can have positive or negative effects on the economy.
“The county should be planning for prosperity,” Goodwin said.
She said that the planning process should not be akin to an “obstacle course.” State land-use policies tend to pit citizens against county planners, Goodwin noted.
Establishing county regional goals could aid in making the process much simpler, Goodwin said. That would enable the county to develop a plan and keep individual citizens from having to singlehandedly fight battles regarding misclassified lands.
Haugen stated that Jackson and Klamath counties are reviewing their local rules that are more restrictive than those of the state.
Longhurst recommended that a task force be assembled to examine Josephine County’s various zoning ordinances. Some panelists and audience members said that they may make such a request to the Josephine County commissioners.
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