An Overview of the History and Structure of
Oregon's Land Use Planning Program

Senate Bills 100 And 101

The Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) and the Oregon planning program was created in 1973 by Senate Bill 100, with support from both parties and Republican Governor Tom McCall. The law created LCDC and directed it to adopt statewide planning goals which addressed a range of topics specified by the legislature. After conducting hearings around the state, LCDC adopted the following 19 state planning goals:

Overall the Goals reflect a principled compromise between development and conservation objectives. The hope was the Goals would encourage development and redevelopment in existing urban areas while protecting farm and forest lands and natural resources, from urban sprawl In 1973 the legislature also adopted Senate Bill 101, which significantly strengthened the exclusive farm use (EFU) zoning statutes in Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 215. In 1976, 1978 and 1982 the voters rejected initiatives to repeal the growth management laws by margins of 10 to 20%.

Comprehensive Plans
Senate Bill 100 did not mandate the adoption of a state plan. Instead it required every city and every county to prepare or amend its own comprehensive plan which includes background inventories and technical information (the plan data base), plan policies (policy choices about future land uses) and implementing measures (zoning ordinances, subdivision control ordinances). Each plan and regulations were required to satisfy all of the applicable statewide planning Goals.

LCDC's Role
LCDC was given the responsibility of reviewing all comprehensive plans to determine whether or not they satisfy the Goals. Ample opportunities were provided for citizens to participate in all phases of the process of implementing the Goals. When LCDC approves a plan as satisfying the Goals, this is called an "acknowledgment of compliance." Usually it requires three LCDC reviews before a county plan is acknowledged. The last county's plan was acknowledged in August 1986. The Legislature appropriated more than $20 million for planning grants to help defray the cost of the planning effort.

Link to Oregon Admistrative Rules relating to DLCD

Amending Plans & Periodic Review
Land use plans and regulations are not immutable; each year local governments adopt 1,000 to 2,000 amendments to their plans and regulations. LCDC's staff, the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) participates in a small number of these amendment proceedings. In addition to piecemeal amendments, the land use laws require plans to undergo a comprehensive "periodic review" to evaluate their performance and to bring them up to date in light of changing laws and circumstances. Periodic review must occur every 4 to 10 years. In general LCDC's staff oversees the periodic review; LCDC itself may or may not become involved in periodic review.

Land Use Decision Making: Standards And Process
In the period before the land use plans had been acknowledged, every individual land use decision made by a city or county had to be "tested against the Goals," in addition to whatever standards apply from the existing city or county ordinances. Now that plans are acknowledged, individual land use decisions need only comply with the plan; the Goals no longer apply. However, when the plan itself is being amended these amendments must comply with the Goals, in order to prevent violations of the Goals from creeping back into the plans.

Another important aspect of the Oregon planning program has been the growth of procedural protections for participants in the land use planning process. These procedural guarantees are intended to assure that everyone has a hearing or some other opportunity to participate and that decisions are based on facts and the law instead of favoritism or other inappropriate reasons.

Land Use Board of Appeals
The 1979 Oregon Legislature created the equivalent of a specialized land use court, called the Land Use Board of Appeals ("LUBA") which hears virtually all "quasijudicial" ⁽¹⁾ appeals from local land use decisions. LUBA also reviews some decisions made by state agencies and local "legislative" decisions. LUBA consists of three "referees," attorneys appointed by the Governor. Because LUBA's review process is subject to strict deadlines, it issues its decisions much faster than the Circuit Courts did (139 days for LUBA compared to 243 days for Circuit Courts.) About 250 appeals are filed with LUBA each year, about 5% of the number of cases filed with the Court of Appeals and a tiny fraction of the 600,000 cases filed in District and Circuit Courts each year. Appeals from LUBA go directly to the Court of Appeals. The legislature has also imposed a deadline on the Court of Appeals for making decisions on appeal from LUBA.

⁽¹⁾ In the manner of a judicial proceeding. Generally that means it involves one piece of land and involves an applicant for a permit and an opponent, and only requires the application of existing law to facts, rather than the making of broad policy decisions. For this reason certain due process safeguards apply.