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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
www.seattlep-i.com
Oregon is in a land-use quagmire
Confusing law may return to voters
Tuesday,
November 21, 2000
THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM,
Ore. -- As the state's lawyers struggle to decipher a property compensation
measure passed by voters Nov. 7, Gov. John Kitzhaber predicts the issue will
end up back in voters' laps before long.
Measure
7 requires compensation to landowners when regulations lower property value.
But Kitzhaber and others fear it also could undermine Oregon's land use and
environmental protection laws.
In
an interview Monday, the governor said he believes the issue ultimately will
make it back to the ballot either in a rewritten form crafted by the 2001 Legislature
or as an outright repeal sponsored by opponents.
"The
issue will be revisited at the ballot at some point," he said.
Kitzhaber
has asked the Oregon attorney general's office for a detailed legal opinion on
what Measure 7 means, how it will be carried out and how it might affect state
and local governments.
"We
are certainly going to try to answer the major questions before the measure
takes effect Dec. 7," Deputy Attorney General David Schuman said
yesterday.
Kitzhaber
and other opponents worry that besides the potentially large financial impact
of the measure, it also might prompt state and local agencies to stop enforcing
land use and environment rules to avoid paying those costs.
A
lawsuit challenging the measure is considered likely, although Kitzhaber said
he's not sure on what grounds someone could legally contest the voter-enacted
amendment to Oregon's constitution.
Depending
on what advice the attorney general's office gives, Kitzhaber said he thinks
the coming Legislature will work to put a measure on the statewide ballot to
implement the measure and clarify its provisions.
He
said a similar process occurred in 1997, when lawmakers retooled a property tax
limit sponsored by Bill Sizemore and sent it back to voters, who approved the
rewrite.
It's
also possible that opponents might mount an initiative campaign to ask voters
to repeal Measure 7 two years from now, he noted. But the Legislature will
likely be pressured to take action before then, especially since the first
lawsuits seeking compensation have been filed and more are sure to follow,
Kitzhaber said.
© 2000 The Associated Press.
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