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Photo by Steve Johnson Richard Fujas of Rising Sun Farms tills his property near Talent Monday. Fujas supports a proposal in the Legislature that would, among other things, map certain kinds of rural lands and open them to uses other than farming and forestry. Farmers split over lands bill Landowners testify before Senate panel By PETER WONG SALEM -- Farmers Richard Fujas and Judson Parsons hold opposing views about legislation that could allow development of less productive rural lands. Fujas, of Medford, who supports so-called secondary lands, and Parsons, a Rogue Valley landowner who lives in Salem and opposes the concept, offered their views last week to the Senate Water and Land Use Committee. The committee's chairman said he is uncertain whether a bill will emerge this session. Fujas, who co-owns Rising Sun Farms with his wife, Elizabeth, says the idea offers a chance to plan and prepare for growth. "I think everybody recognizes that concentric urban growth boundaries of cities have not protected our farmland," he said. "We are using it up. I see this bill as a first opportunity to plan. "We probably can divert some of our growth into other areas. Our governor has said we should move to the east and promote economic development there, and I agree. But I know most of the growth is going to happen in the Interstate 5 corridor." Senate Bill 99, sponsored by Oregonians in Action property-rights group, is the third straight attempt to map these rural lands and open them to uses other than farming and forestry. Unlike its predecessors, the bill this session would leave it to a future Legislature to determine alternative uses. But Parsons, formerly of Medford and now of Salem, said a secondary-lands designation only invites trouble for agriculture. Parsons is the former manager of Hillcrest Orchards in Medford, and he and his wife still own land in Jackson County. "If land is declared secondary, then divided and put to nonresource use, there will be a big increase in management problems for nearby operators on resource lands," he said. "Establishment of new commercial farm and forest operations will be discouraged or stopped. Fragmentation and home-building remove resource land from commercial use by escalating land prices and increasing conflicts." Parsons said less productive land outside the populated areas of the Bear Creek Valley could prove to be productive if irrigation rights can be secured. "But this can only occur if this outlying land remains available for agricultural use," he said. The Legislature has debated this issue in almost every session since 1983. Though he once advocated the concept, Gov. John Kitzhaber supports Oregon's land-use planning restrictions, which keep most population growth within urban growth boundaries of cities and protect most rural lands for farming and forestry. Committee Chairman Veral Tarno, R-Coquille, acknowledged Kitzhaber's potential opposition and said a bill probably would have to be amended before it goes to the Senate. The Senate passed similar bills in 1995 and 1997, but both died in the House. The conflicts between Fujas' and Parsons' positions are mirrored in the testimony by interest groups. Larry George, Oregonians in Action executive director, said 16 million acres are zoned for exclusive farm use but only 2 million acres are really "prime," mostly in the Willamette Valley. "The goal of Senate Bill 99 is to develop a program where the state can identify less productive or nonproductive rural lands, and direct growth and provide additional opportunities on those lands," he said. "At the same time, the state will preserve its true farmland base." But Blair Batson, staff attorney for the land-use watchdog group 1000 Friends of Oregon, said there is plenty of rural land open to development already. "If folks want to live in a state where low-density rural residential development rolls on for hundreds of miles across productive ranches, timber and other agricultural operations, they can move east -- and south -- without demanding that of Oregon," she said. "Oregon has embraced the opportunity to do something different and better." The Legislature approved a law in 1993 that loosened restrictions on less productive rural lands, mostly outside the Willamette Valley, and tightened them for more productive lands within the valley. According to county reports compiled by the state, Jackson County approved 85 nonfarm-related houses on farmland between 1994 and 1997, and 67 houses on "lots of record" created before 1985. The totals for Josephine County were 21 nonfarm-related houses, and two on "lots of record." Jackson County approved 299 houses on forest land, excluding replacements, between 1994 and 1997; Josephine County, 113. But approvals have dropped off sharply since the early 1990s. Two state agencies and the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation have raised questions about the bill's broad definitions of less productive lands. Though the top two soil classes would be off-limits to designation as secondary, the next two would not -- and those classes cover soils used for orchards and vineyards. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA