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Senate: Ease state's farmland homes rule By PETER WONG SALEM -- The Oregon Senate reversed itself Monday and approved a bill that may make it easier to build houses on prime farmland. Senate Bill 454 passed 16-13 without debate. It bars the state Land Conservation and Development Commission from using income as a test to determine whether houses can be built on land zoned for exclusive farm use. LCDC came up with the test, which sets a threshold of $80,000 in gross income. The bill proposes no substitute for the test, which LCDC adopted about five years ago to slow conversion of farmland. The bill moves to the House. It faces a potential veto from Gov. John Kitzhaber, who has said Oregon's land-use planning laws should make it hard to build houses on prime farmland. But Larry George, executive director of the property-rights group Oregonians in Action, said he then would ask the Legislature to refer the issue to voters and bypass a veto. "I doubt Oregonians believe that people who make $80,000 should be the only ones to live on their own farms," George said. Small-time farmers say they have a right to build on their land. But land-use advocates say some sort of test is needed to screen legitimate farmers from those who simply want to build dream houses in the countryside. George said more than three-quarters of Oregon's farmers earn $40,000 or less from farming. "The rule is so far out of whack with what agriculture actually is," he said. "Most people agree that the rule should be changed. All this bill does is say that income is a bad measure of what a farmer is or is not." The bill failed last week when Sen. Thomas Wilde, a maverick Democrat from Portland, walked out before the vote on an unrelated matter. It was kept alive on a parliamentary maneuver. Wilde joined 15 Republicans, including all four from Southern Oregon, to pass the bill Monday. It was opposed by the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation and 1000 Friends of Oregon, a watchdog group that supports Oregon's land-use planning program. "The primary obstacle to starting or expanding a farm operation in Oregon is the shortage of available farm ground, not a shortage of housing for farmers," said Randy Tucker, a policy advocate for 1000 Friends. "We are suspicious of people who suggest that the way to get started in agriculture is to build a house. Real farmers start farming by growing crops, not building houses." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA