Planning the Oregon Way: A Twenty-Year Evaluation

Abstract

Planning the Oregon Way of Environmental Quality, started planning for a Willamette River Greenway, and presided over passage of bills to reassert public ownership of ocean beaches, to set minimum deposits for beverage cans and bottles, and to require removal of billboards. In this context of environmental awareness, the initial impulse for state land-use legislation came from the farms rather than the cities.' The center of concern was the hundred-mile-long Willamette Valley, where the Coast Range on one side and the high Cascades on the other reminded residents that land is finite. The first steps toward the idea of "exclusive farm use" between 1961 and 1967 involved legislative action to set the tax rate on farm land by land rental valuesin effect, by its productive capacity as farm landrather than by comparative sales data which might reflect the demand for suburban development. A conference on "The Willamette ValleyWhat Is our Future in Land Use?" held early in 1967 spread awareness of urban pressures on Oregon's agricultural base. With key members drawn from the ranks of Oregon farmers, the Legislative Interim Committee on Agriculture responded by developing the proposal that became Senate Bill 10, Oregon's first mandatory planning legislation. Adopted in 1969, SB 10 took the major step of requiring cities and counties to prepare comprehensive land-use plans and zoning ordinances that met ten broad goals. The deadline was December 31, 1971. How-cerely concerned with promoting economic development in Oregon should cheer this program rather than fight it."5 A task force headed by Umatilla County farmer Stafford Hansell heard testimony from more than four hundred Oregonians and reported essentially the same conclusions to Governor Vic Atiyeh. The election returns showed the same regional divisions as before, with strong opposition from ranching counties in the southeastern corner of the state and from lumbering counties in the southwestern corner. The 1982 referendum was the last comprehensive attack on the Oregon planning system. The rest of the decade brought institutional stability. A continuing economic slump triggered net outmigration that totaled 86,000 from 1980 to 1986. Stagnant population meant little demand for new housing and few pressures for land conversion, leaving the assumptions of most local plans unchallenged. Local planning activities xviii Planning the Oregon Way want. Oregon policy makers and planners are actively exploring ways to intervene in this trend and to effect greater densities. The transportation rule is an outgrowth of frustrations with the historical separation of land use and transportation planning. As SyAdler indicates, the hoped-for integration of land use and transportation should achieve more purposeful urban form and a land use pattern that provides a range of mobility alternatives. Similarly, a gradual convergence of land use planning and economic development policy is occurring. Especially in major urban areas, as John DeGrove points out, large economic interests ackno...