Oregon Public Broadcasting

A task force is reviewing Oregon’s one-of-a-kind land use planning system and hammering out the last details of its draft recommendations.

The Big Look Task Force is meeting in Madras. Its initial recommendations have encouraged property rights’ advocates, and worried smart growth proponents.

Rob Manning reports on what could fundamentally change the statewide planning system, created thirty-five years ago.

Since Oregon established its land-use system, laws and court decisions have tweaked it. But its core theme has remained: development inside cities, and land conservation elsewhere.

That’s been to the consternation of critics – like Dave Hunnicutt with Oregonians in Action.

Dave Hunnicutt: “Pick the land-use planning system of whatever state you want, and adopt that, and it’ll be an improvement over what we have in Oregon right now.”

David Goldberg: “Oregon has been a beacon in many ways of what is possible.”

Now that’s a fan of Oregon planning, David Goldberg, with Smart Growth America. He’s watching from D.C. to see what the Big Look will recommend.

David Goldberg: “If this were to substantially undermine the outcomes and successes that Oregon has had, it wouldn’t be a good thing and it would be disappointing.”

Specifically, there’s a recommendation to divide rural lands into two categories. One: key farm, forest, and natural areas, what some call "foundation lands." And two: non key areas that that would come under the purview of local leaders.

Sid Friedman: “Fundamentally, the proposal that troubles us the most is the proposal that the lands that aren’t so-called ‘foundation lands’- the best of the best, are open to development.”

Sid Friedman is with 1000 Friends of Oregon, and he’s making his case standing in a vineyard. Specifically, it’s the very hill that Eyrie vineyard founder chose to first plant grapes on.

David Millman manages a different vineyard nearby.

David Millman: "He decided all those years ago, he would go where he felt pinot noir would prosper best, and he picked the northern Willamette Valley, of all places. He happened to pick here, and in fact, he picked this hill.”

Over the years, vineyards have multiplied here, while development was kept within cities like Dundee and Dayton. Sid Friedman with 1000 Friends says the current system stopped developments that the Big Look recommendations might have allowed. 

Sid Friedman: “You know, if that recommendation had been in place 30 years ago, this whole hillside would have been chopped up into five-acre ranchettes, because Yamhill County considered this to be worthless ground.”

Judy Hammerstad: “I think that’s an absolutely legitimate concern.”

That’s Lake Oswego mayor – and Big Look task force member – Judy Hammerstad. While she agrees that development could go too far, she says that would not necessarily happen with stronger local control.

Judy Hammerstad: “People on the other side would say ‘they don’t have the expertise to make those decisions.’ I think that’s maybe a little arrogant.”

Further, task force staffers say the idea is not to simply surrender oversight to local leaders. For one thing, task force members like the idea of regional decision-making, like what often  happens in the Portland Metro area. And, task force members are offering a mix of guidelines and incentives that could steer development.

On the other side, property rights’ advocates appreciate the emphasis on flexibility. Jon Laraway is a farmer in Hood River.

He says defenders of the current system should remember that the Big Look was launched three years ago in the wake of Ballot Measure 37 – which was aimed at helping property owners.

Jon Laraway: “I think some of these groups, like 1000 Friends, need to understand what the state has gone through in the last four or five years with Measure 37, and I think it was a clear message from the voters that they didn’t like the direction it was going, and they wanted some change.”

Task force members will bring a handful of draft recommendations to the public this fall – with a menu of options for people to weigh in on. The “state vs. local” question is only one of them, though it probably will be the most controversial. 

Of course, the task force is no stranger to controversy. The Big Look lost its funding last year, as lawmakers fought over the legislative referral, Measure 49. Those lawmakers are expected to battle again early next year, when the Big Look’s final recommendations head to Salem.