The Proper Diet For Healthy Local Watchdogs:
Citizen Groups Translate Lofty Goals into Local Action

There were plenty of choices on the menu: "from tapioca pudding to General Tso's Szechuan chicken," as an organizer from 1000 Friends of Oregon put it.

But he wasn't talking about dinner. He was talking about land use projects for the newly formed Jackson County Citizens League (JCCL).

In the spring and summer of 1991, Brent Thompson, an Ashland remodeler, convened several meetings in his back yard to discuss the formation of a local land use advocacy group.

The need for such a group was clear. In a one-year period in the late 1980s, Jackson County had approved more than 400 new homes on the county's farm and forest lands, more than any other county in the state, despite state laws and local regulations meant to protect those lands from development. These approvals were changing the landscape and threatening the agriculture and timber lands in Jackson County.

It had taken ten years to translate the state's land use laws into local plans and regulations. Now the question was whether those plans and regulations would actually be obeyed.

Back to Our Grassroots: The problem of enforcing the local plans that implemented state land use goals, especially those protecting farm, range, and forestlands, had preoccupied 1000 Friends of Oregon's founder Henry Richmond during the late 1980s. 1000 Friends could not effectively monitor the 20,000 or more land use decisions made each year by cities and counties.

What 1000 Friends needed was local partners, including the citizens who had worked to get good plans and regulations adopted in the first place. That's why 1000 Friends spent generously of its time and funds during the 1990s helping local citizens form their own independent watchdog organizations.

As the menu of choices made clear, these local groups could do much more than monitor the execution of local land use and transportation plans and regulations. They could educate the public about how and why Oregon planned for its growth; research local implementation of the statewide planning goals; and contribute to the deliberations of the Oregon Legislature and Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC).

Spicy Entree: For their debut project, JCCL picked the hottest dish on the menu: initiating enforcement proceedings against Jackson County. The citizen-based enforcement order process had been pioneered by 1000 Friends in Washington County in 1988-89 and codified by the Legislature in 1991. It allows citizens to ask LCDC to determine whether their local governments are engaged in a "pattern or practice" of violating state-approved local land use plans and regulations.

A team of 1000 Friends lawyers worked with JCCL to review hundreds of land use decisions and to present arguments to LCDC's staff, a hearings officer, and the Commission itself. By the summer of 1992, after six months of proceedings, LCDC had upheld a majority of JCCL's claims of violation and stepped in to force the county to mend its ways.

The project had indeed been a hot one, highly visible and highly controversial. But it put the Jackson County Citizens League on the map and gave them clout in the county and the state.

As Thompson put it in a 1995 Landmark, the most rewarding moment was "overhearing a conversation between two planning directors from eastern Oregon at a hearing in Salem. They said they didn't always agree with state laws but would never risk an enforcement order by violating them."

"The Jackson County Citizens League could never have gotten organized so quickly without the support, guidance and professional expertise of 1000 Friends," says Carol Doty, an early JCCL member and the group's president for several years. Doty, who was targeted by anti-planning forces during her term as a Jackson County Commissioner, is now a member of 1000 Friends' board of directors. "The survival of Oregon's land use program is directly linked to the survival and health of 1000 Friends and to the continuation of these local groups," she says.

Many Voices At the Table: Many other local groups have formed since JCCL, with and without 1000 Friends of Oregon's help. Some of them, like the Alliance for Responsible Land Use in Deschutes County, have also begun their work with an enforcement order proceeding.

Others have chosen slightly milder dishes from the menu of possible activities. For example, Friends of Eugene has focused on improving the local Transportation Plan and Land Use Code. Friends of Yamhill County has fought against several poorly designed annexations. Friends of Polk County has worked to invigorate citizen participation in planning. But all have been effective in garnering public recognition and influence.

Each year more groups are forming to take responsibility at the grassroots level for Oregon's effort to plan its growth. Today, many of these groups have joined with 1000 Friends of Oregon into a network of affiliated organizations. The local groups provide knowledge and guidance about local land use issues, regulations and politics. 1000 Friends provides expertise about state land use laws and decision-makers.

According to Evan Manvel, the staff advocate who worked from 1998 to 204 with affiliated groups around the state, it's a great partnership. "Local citizens have the knowledge and the passion to defend their communities, and they really put themselves on the line," he says. "Their energy and dedication inspire us and make it possible for us to be effective around the state in a way we never could otherwise." The energy and dedication of local citizens in defending their communities is both inspiring and humbling. It is only because of their knowledge, their passion, and their willingness to put themselves on the line that 1000 Friends can be effective around the state.