Speech by Bob Stacey, Executive Director
Portland Convention Center
October 15, 2005

A few months ago someone asked me: Bob, do you really want to hold a 30th anniversary party? Do you have anything to celebrate?

In November 2004, right after the election, there were not many voices counseling a legal challenge of Measure 37. But there were some: our Board member Tom Bowerman of Springfield was one. Another was Deborah Noble of Eugene, who said she wasn't prepared to give up Oregon without a fight, and that she would hire a lawyer herself if we didn't challenge the measure. And there was Henry Richmond, whose famous steel-trap mind kept analyzing M37 for potential weaknesses.

Finally, there was Tom Christ, the lawyer who stopped Measure 7 in 2000.

Tom told us we should talk to a smart lawyer who had worked with him on the Measure 7 case. We met with this lawyer, Todd Baran, to hear his theories. He persuaded me. And yesterday the Circuit Court announced that it has been persuaded as well.

Please join me in thanking these friends of Oregon, and particularly Todd Baran.

This is a wonderful victory. But it is not final. Beyond the Supreme Court, which will review this judicial ruling, there is the court of public opinion.

Our most important work in the months ahead will be with the people of Oregon. We must change the terms of the debate about protecting our communities and our state.

The passage of measure 37 has unleashed a bizarre new constituency of greed-of people who think they have a right not simply to be made whole, but to be made rich at their neighbors' expense. The backers of Measure 37 will try to portray these people as victims because their scheme has been declared illegal.

Our job is to bring this debate back to reality. Who are the victims in this battle? A landowner who claims the right to develop in violation of zoning laws? Or the farmers or other neighbors whose property values are reduced by incompatible development? Or the public, whose right to plan a better future for our communities is compromised by uncontrolled, unplanned development?

From its very beginning, land use planning has been about fairness:

About fairly allocating the benefits and responsibilities of property ownership,

About maximizing everybody's property values by ensuring that no one spoils the nest,

About everyone living by the same rules.

In a land use plan based on fairness, there must be procedures for dealing with cases of harm resulting from the unfair application of generally good laws. In Oregon, we've always had these safety valves for ensuring fairness case-by-case, from adjustments and variances to nonfarm dwelling permits in the farm use zone.

But measures 7 and 37 went beyond this to claim a new right-the right to be paid if land use regulations reduce the value of property, or to ignore any such law adopted after you bought your property. At its worst, this is nothing more than requiring the rest of us to pay some people to comply with the law. The court has now ruled that this is an impermissible interference with the government's duty to protect the public.

So let's find a more moderate, more reasonable way to address cases where our land use laws have significantly reduced land values for individual property owners.

Let's establish a fund, paid into by property owners who reap windfalls from land use planning, such as the inclusion of their land into an urban growth boundary. And make sure the community gets something for compensating a property owner-such as a deed restriction permanently protecting the land from development.

But let's not grant waivers to allow one property owner to hurt their neighbors, and let's not make blanket changes to our land use laws based on anecdotes about "fairness."

We made these proposals in the 2005 legislature. We have now asked, in light of yesterday's ruling, that the legislature be reconvened in special session to take up the issue of fairness, and to replace Measure 37 with a law that is both constitutional and fair to all Oregonians.

So far, the response from Salem hasn't been encouraging. It doesn't look as if they all want to get back together again just yet.

Of course, the opponents of land use planning have already promised to go back to the ballot box. If the constitution won't allow them to exempt some landowners from the law, they say they'll just try to persuade Oregonians to exempt all landowners from the law.

What a surprise.

It turns out these folks wanted to repeal land use planning all along. They aren't after some concept of "fairness"; they are out to destroy the laws that protect our communities, farms, and forests.

We will work hard in the weeks ahead to persuade legislative leaders to focus on solutions like those we offered in the 2005 session, because these are complex issues that are best resolved through careful deliberation.

We will also pursue the initiative process. It is not our first choice. But we can't stand idly by while Oregonians In Action mounts another misleading campaign designed to damage or repeal our community protections.

If the legislature can't or won't act, we will ask the people of Oregon to adopt a fairness program that protects our communities, landscapes and property values, that is fair to all Oregonians, and that is constitutional.

On Monday Todd Baran will be back at work preparing to defend our judicial victory in the Supreme Court.

At 1000 Friends, we'll be back at work preparing to give legislators and the Oregon voters a practical fairness plan, and working to stop the people who are using fairness as a cloak for greed.

* * * *

Tonight, we say farewell to 1000 Friends' first 30 years.

We're not here to be comforted by nostalgia, or to dream of an Oregon past.

We're here to envision the future Oregon we want to build and protect. The Oregon of 30 years from now.

It's a future Oregon that will have over five million Oregonians. That's hard for someone like me to imagine—I can remember when Oregon had fewer than two million people.

But that's the point. It's not about me or my perspective. The Oregonians who are now in their 40s, 30s and 20s are the ones who will build the Oregon of 30 years from now; and our children and millions of new Oregonians will join them there.

The vision we had 30 years ago, when Gov. Tom McCall, Henry Richmond, and many others started us on this journey, must be replaced with a new vision, one that is embraced by a new Oregon.

Fortunately, you don't just have me working for you. We're going to need the talent and energy of our terrific staff, because 1000 Friends of Oregon has a critical role to play in helping Oregonians craft a new future for ourselves. And we're going to play that role not only in the legislature or at the ballot box, but also in an important new forum: the Big Look.

The 2005 Legislature adopted Senate Bill 82, which establishes the Task Force on Oregon Land Use Planning. This ten-member committee will study the performance of the state's land use system, and make recommendations for changes in land use laws to the 2009 legislative session-three years from now.

As we work on the Big Look, we will be aware of and responsive to the changes that have occurred in Oregon since our land use laws were adopted in the '70s, and the changes that will occur in the next thirty years.

And we will also speak out on behalf of values that we know are timeless.

In an Oregon with five million residents, in a world with 8 1/2 billion people, will we no longer need our community and countryside protections?

Will we no longer need to protect our productive soils, and the farmers who work them?

Will we no longer need urban growth boundaries to shape our growth and protect our special places?

Will we no longer give all the people a voice in designing our downtowns and main streets, strengthening our neighborhoods, planning for economic development and prosperity? Will we no longer care about Tillamook Head, Cape Ferrelo, Smith Rock, the Gorge, Wallowa Lake or Steens Mountain?

I think the Oregonians of 30 years from now will care. And they will be proud that in 2005 Oregonians once again raised their voices and demanded that their government do the job right-conduct a "Big Look" that sets us on the path to make Oregon more prosperous, more beautiful, more livable than it is today.

1000 Friends can help make that happen. We will use our website, our newsletter, and other communications tools. We will organize, do research, and build coalitions. But we will succeed only if we all help.

It will take the nearly thousand friends who are in this hall tonight. It will take the more than 5000 friends who are our members. It will take the ten thousand friends we must become.