Forcing Subdivisions on Productive Ranchlands?

A Measure 37 demand to subdivide over 300 acres of working farmland into 5-acre parcels will be heard tomorrow evening, the first such hearing by Crook County. In addition to the loss of irreplaceable farmland, impacts to neighboring ranchers and increased demand on scarce groundwater supplies, Measure 37 unfairly forces Crook County residents to accept this unplanned growth. Windfall profits given to opportunistic land speculators leave taxpayers footing the bill to subsidize necessary roads and services such as schools and police.

Gary Harris, a second-generation farmer who grows seed outside of Madras, observes: "A farmland owner who wants to subdivide his land is not a farmer, he's a developer. If he wants to be a developer, he is free to purchase developable land within cities at a fair market price."

Measure 37 allows some landowners to speculate on land while evading land protections developed over decades of citizen-driven decisions about how our communities should grow. Under Measure 37, a landowner who inherited or bought land 30 years ago at negligible farmland prices can develop it into a sprawling subdivision, generating windfall profits on the backs of surrounding family farms and ranches. Communities are helpless to stop Meaure 37 waivers, like the one sought by the Landrus ranch, despite the harm they may cause.

A Crook County hearings officer will hold a hearing on the Landrus Measure 37 demand tomorrow evening at 6:30 at the Crook County Courthouse in Prineville.

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