From our weekly issue dated June 16, 2010
Because of passage of House Bill 2229 by the Legislature last year, counties throughout Oregon have the opportunity to review their land-use codes and potentially rezone parcels that might have been originally misclassified.
That was the main topic of a Wednesday, June 9 meeting at the Guild Bldg. in Grants Pass. Approximately 15 people attended the forum, sponsored by Southern Oregon Resource Alliance (SORA) and which featured Oregonians in Action (OIA) President Dave Hunnicutt as guest speaker.
SORA is a nonprofit organization devoted to natural resource utilization, and was founded in the 1970s by former Josephine County Commissioner Anne G. Basker. OIA is a property-rights advocacy group based in Tigard.
Hunnicutt said that HB 2229 is “one of the few bright spots in recent years“ to come out of the Legislature.
In 1975, the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) adopted a series of statewide planning goals. Goal 3 dealt with agriculture and farm land-use, and Goal 4 involved forestry uses.
Those goals contained a “broad definition“ of farm and forest land, according to Hunnicutt.
Between 1975 and the mid-1980s, counties had to adopt comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances or amend them to fit LCDC“s first 14 goals. Ever since, Hunnicutt said, there has been “significant uncertainty“ among counties and property owners regarding permitted uses of land.
Jackson County created a task force of residents in the mid-1970s that held meetings and designated around 14,000 acres of land for Exclusive Farm Use (EFU). Its recommendations were presented to LCDC, Hunnicutt said, which rejected them and opted instead to increase the EFU designation to 200,000 acres.
“Their local input was not recognized at all,“ Hunnicutt said.
He estimated that there are approximately one million acres of resource land that have been miszoned throughout the state.
“We hear that everywhere we go,“ he said.
Gov. Kulongoski and legislative leaders agreed in 2005 to formation of the Big Look Task Force. That 10-member panel was charged with traveling around the state to solicit input from citizens regarding the land-use system, and reporting its findings to the Legislature.
The report produced by the task force lead to introduction of HB 2229 during the 2009 legislative session.
Hunnicutt said that bill was “worthless“ in its original form, and was widely opposed by cities, counties, realtor groups, builders and groups on both sides of the land-use debate.
“It would not have done anything,“ he said. “Everybody hated it.“
However, Hunnicutt said, Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland) chaired the House Land-Use Committee and wanted to pass a bill reflecting the task force“s findings. That required buy-in from all the different groups that opposed the bill, Hunnicutt said.
HB 2229 passed the House and Senate nearly unanimously. By then, Hunnicutt said, it had been amended in committee and was a “radically different bill.“
Hunnicutt said that HB 2229 is the most significant land-use bill passed by the Legislature since the 1973 passage of SB 100, which created the statewide system.
“This has the potential of being a big change,“ he said.
Prior to passage of HB 2229, Hunnicutt said, counties largely had given up on changing the zoning of rural properties. He added that once that bill was signed into law, OIA hoped that some counties outside the Willamette Valley would be willing to be “guinea pigs“ and take the first steps towards rezoning parcels of land.
Around six months ago, Hunnicutt said, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to be the first county to initiate the process under HB 2229. Jackson County made a similar decision about three months ago, and Josephine County also is doing the same. Grant and Coos counties are moving in the same direction, Hunnicutt said.
Deschutes and Jackson are the “ideal counties“ to try the process, he said, as both have experienced much change, growth and urbanization since the 1980s.
He said that for HB 2229 to work, LCDC must change its definitions of farm and forest land to a more regionalized concept. He opined that the agency likely would be willing to do so, as it does not want HB 2229 to fail.
“LCDC wants to make it work,“ Hunnicutt said. “They want to have a success story.“
Jackson and Deschutes counties will adopt their rulemaking under HB 2229 next March, Hunnicutt said, and their task forces will begin drafting those rules this September.
“This time next year, we“ll have a good idea where this is heading,“ he said.
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