Ray Ring

Senior Editor

This website — High Country News and the GOAT blog — have dug into a libertarian campaign that is trying to get voters to approve property-rights initiatives in Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Arizona and Nevada. The initiatives would install a “regulatory-takings” regime, so that governments would have to pay landowners for the burden of land-use regulations, or waive the regulations. The initiatives are modeled on Oregon’s Measure 37, which Oregon voters approved in 2004.

My High Country News package on the campaign includes excerpts from interviews of Oregon residents. They talk about their views of Measure 37 and how the regulatory-takings regime is working out in Oregon — lessons for people in the states now targeted.

To help bring home the message, here are podcasts that are excerpts from my interviews with four Oregonians, so you can hear it in their voices:

(UPDATE: These are sounds clips lasting several minutes each. If they don’t play fully for you, right click on the link and choose “Save As” to download the complete file, rather than streaming it.)

Dorothy English: During the campaign pitching Oregon’s Measure 37 to voters in 2004, English starred in statewide radio ads. Now a 93-year-old widow living on 20 acres on a hillside overlooking Portland, she has been fighting for three decades for permission to slice off a few home sites, including one for her grandson. She’s owned the land since 1953, but the statewide planning system launched in the 1970s, and the Multnomah County planners, have blocked her. Once Measure 37 passed, she filed the first claim, seeking to subdivide her land. Ironically, she’s still battling. The county waived the subdivision regulations, but it wants her to submit detailed plans for how she would deal with sloped ground, fire dangers, and road-building issues. In May, she sued the county for $1.15 million, charging that the county is unfairly stalling. A pro-planning environmentalist says, off the record, “The county should just figure out a way for the woman to get her damn (new) house. It’s just a few acres, get over it! This is a pretty squeaky wheel!” … Dorothy English has been slowed down by recent strokes that affect her speech, but she’s still game. For her podcast, click here.

Ted Schroeder: Schroeder, a doctor, lives on 52 acres in the rural Grande Ronde Valley in northeast Oregon. He voted for Oregon’s Measure 37 and regrets it. A neighboring family, operating as Terra-Magic Inc., has filed a Measure 37 claim, seeking to brush aside agricultural zoning and subdivide 1,400 acres of prime farmland into 335 home sites. The valley is mostly farms, which grow mint, grass seed, potatoes, alfalfa and wheat. Many residents say that an influx of homes on small lots would change the valley’s character forever. Opponents also say it would cause conflicts with farm activities, including increased traffic, dogs harassing livestock, and intolerance toward field burning and pre-dawn harvesting. On June 7, the Union County Commissioners (all three Republicans) rejected the developer’s claim on a technicality, but the developer will likely appeal to circuit court. Schroeder is not optimistic the development can be stopped, and he feels deceived. For his podcast, click here, and to see what he looks like, click here.

Bill Rose: Rose runs Rose Agriseeds on 2,100 acres in the Willamette Valley, about 20 miles south of Portland. He breeds specialty grasses for golf courses, and grasses that can be watered with sea water, shipping to customers as far away as Maryland. He voted for Measure 37 because he wanted to relax regulations enough to allow modest subdivisions on hilly, unfarmable rural land. Then one of his neighbors filed a Measure 37 claim, to convert a 40-acre berry farm into lots as small as one-seventh of an acre for 280 houses. The developer wanted the Clackamas County government to waive the agricultural zoning or pay him at least $3.6 million. The county had no choice but to approve the claim, in April. Now Rose is making a last-ditch attempt to persuade the county to limit the number of new septic tanks. He says Measure 37 claims “will destroy this valley — the best place to live and farm that I know of.” For his podcast, click here, and to see what he looks like, click here.

Renee Ross: She and her husband, Bryan, live on 32 acres near Molalla, southeast of Portland. It’s hilly, with woods and pasture, and spring-fed Teasel Creek flows through it. She also thought Measure 37 was a good idea. Now, two of her neighbors have filed Measure 37 claims: One wants to build 10 houses on 60 acres, and the other wants to dig a gravel mine on 80 acres. Handcuffed by Measure 37, the Clackamas County government OK’d both claims. Ross and 46 other neighbors signed a petition asking the county to deny the mining claim. Now she’s trying to persuade the state geology agency to declare it an unsafe land use. But the state agency, she says, is “not in the habit of saying ‘no’ to anyone who wants to have a rock mine, once it’s approved at the county level.” For her podcast, click here, and to see what she looks like, click here.

And for a podcast of the wealthy New York City libertarian, Howie Rich, who is pumping big money into the regulatory-takings campaign, check an earlier GOAT post.