Welcome to Yes on 49
Browser upgrade - uhoh!

Fred Robinson: Four hundred one-acre home sites?

The rural area where Fred lives consists mostly of orchards and fields where grass is grown for seed. The narrow roads attract many cyclists for the scenery and the lack of traffic. One Measure 37 claim could change all of that. One of Fred's neighbors has filed to turn 400 acres into 400 one-acre home sites.

Continue reading Fred Robinson's Oregon Story.

See more Oregon Stories.

Measure 37 Sprawl

Portland

Purple is for Measure 37 Purple Areas on the Maps Represent Measure 37 Claims

See more maps of Measure 37 impacts around Oregon.

Oregonians support Measure 49, maintain protections on forests and farmland

Voters say "YES" to a modification of Measure 37

PORTLAND, OR., Nov. 7, 2007 — The result of yesterday’s election marks an important point in Oregon—a majority of Oregonians voted "Yes" on Measure 49.

Oregon voters have said loudly and clearly that they think farmland, forests and areas where groundwater is limited should be protected from inappropriate development. At the same time, Oregonians have clarified rules to allow longtime landowners to develop a few homes on these lands.

In passing Measure 49, Oregonians rejected the extremism of Measure 49 opponents in favor of rules that acknowledge all property owners and restore certainty in Oregon’s land use system.

The campaign for Measure 49 involved thousands of Oregonians, many of whom stepped forward to talk about how Measure 37 affects them and how Measure 49 helps them. At the end of the day, it was this authenticity that resonated with voters.

With provisions of Measure 49, farms, forests and water win back protections granted decades ago by Oregon law.

"Although Oregonians certainly support the home-building rights Measure 37 granted to long-time landowners, they also recognize a need to support working farms, forests and water, which is exactly how Measure 49 works," says Bruce Chapin, a regional director of the statewide Oregon Farm Bureau Federation and a third-generation farmer who is manager of Chapin Orchards outside Keizer.

These lands became vulnerable to development proposed by upwards of 7,500 claims that were filed following the implementation in 2005 of Measure 37. Thousands of these claims propose something other than a few homes — subdivisions of dozens, hundreds and even thousands of homes are proposed, as are strip malls, destination resorts, gravel mines and other inappropriate developments.

Some of this development already is under construction. Without the protections of Measure 49, construction likely would begin in the coming year on hundreds of additional developments.

Under Measure 49, however, the massive development proposed via Measure 37 won’t be allowed to go forward.

"Measure 49 staves off what we know eventually would have become a crisis for Oregon’s farmland, forests and groundwater," says Russ Hoeflich, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Oregon.

Measure 49 works by closing loopholes in Measure 37 that allow large-scale development and it clarifies the right granted by Measure 37 to develop a few home sites.

"Fairness and balance have been restored to the land use system in Oregon," says Bob Stacey, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Oregon, an organization dedicated to preserving land use planning here since 1973.

Get more news in the news section.