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50 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, April 17, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 16, 2005 Land-use planning changes get nod By JOHN DARLING For the Mail Tribune MEDFORD — While most landowners praised the Legislature’s efforts to craft a Measure 37 bill that would not lead to speculation and sprawl, a minority Friday night cautioned a House committee that government must pay to preserve farm and forest lands or risk scads of "tacky tracts." About three-fourths of the 27 witnesses speaking before the House Land-Use Committee at Medford City Hall supported Measure 37 and a bill (SB1037) to effectively implement it. Most urged legislators to include "transferability," so that any development rights prior to zone changes can be passed to heirs. The so-called omnibus Measure 37 bill will define how property owners can use previously-zoned exclusive farm use and forestlands to regain value lost due to land-use and zoning restrictions imposed after they bought the land. Under Measure 37, local governments must either compensate landowners for the property value lost because of later land-use restrictions or waive those restrictions. Voters approved the measure last November. Many witnesses said fairness and proper use of the land, not profit, was their motivation. Advertisement "It’s not about the money," said Medford land-use consultant Michael LaNier, referring to his several dozen Measure 37 clients. "It’s about how can I use their land in a reasonable manner and not have the state tell me where I live on my property." However, Ashland farmer Chris Skrepetos said Measure 37 backers and speculators are offering some former owners a small percentage of ownership, so they can claim "ownership going back to 1962 or 1974," in hopes of qualifying for compensation. He urged the committee to specify that ownership has to be "continuous, uninterrupted." Measure 37 backers, Skrepetos charged, are also advising landowners to wait on their claims until after the Legislature is adjourned in a few months, so that lawmakers will write the bill with the belief there will be few claims. The bill would require farm land to be classified as high value, to be preserved with no Measure 37 claims allowed — while "non-high value, non-resource" farm lands could be considered for claims, said Rep. Bill Garrard, R-Klamath Falls, the committee chair. Treatment of forest lands has not yet been worked out, he added. Jackson County has very little prime farm land, said Bill Ryan of the Jackson County Farm Bureau, and under the Land Conservation and Development Commission, which administers state land-use planning, the cities of Central Point and Eagle Point have expanded into it, thus prompting Farm Bureau support for the bill. Longtime farmer and local Farm Bureau president Ronald Bjork added, "It (the bill) will help keep farms in the family. With the increase of land values here, the young farmer can’t afford to buy a house off the farm, but, now, he can build on his parents’ land and farm it." Transferability is the key to a good bill, said LaNier, who said many claimants are elderly and need to proceed with dwellings for their children during their own lifetimes. The bill should also reduce the "incomprehensible morass" of jurisdictions that landowners face, he added. To legislators who opened the meeting by praising the beauty of Southern Oregon, Deborah Miller of Medford said, "This land of beauty and rich resources that you gloat about can feed the world and feed the soul. It’s the only reason I came to Oregon, when Governor (Tom) McCall had a vision for the future, about keeping all this and not letting it turn into tacky tracts." Miller urged legislators to remember that Measure 37 was meant to allow landowners to pass holdings to their children, not to allow "scheming speculators" to shoehorn their way into using it for developments Phoenix orchardist John Graves implored the committee to write the bill to discourage waivers for down-zoning, potentially creating a domino effect, with one property after the other going into more dense development. "We’re going to lose all the orchards on the west side of Phoenix and it’s a shame, because they employ a lot of people and contribute a lot to the economy," said Graves. "Consider giving people compensation instead or else we’ll be ruining the environment that people moved to Southern Oregon for." However, while LaNier said only a small portion of Jackson County is good farmland, local grape grower TrauteMoore reminded legislators that the more steep, stony land is valuable for growing wine grapes. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Tatoos Advertisement s