Oregon is famous for its pro-green policies, leading the U.S. in restoring salmon habitat, reigning in urban sprawl and protecting farms and forests from becoming housing tracts.
But in the last election, Oregon shocked environmentalists by approving Measure 7 that could kill all the regulations by basically repealing land use planning. While the amendment doesn’t overturn current laws, it raises questions about whether they can be enforced.
The first claim filed under Measure 7 was by a truck driver, Frank Hardin, who has been prevented by local ordinances from mining gravel out of an old gold mine, claiming $50 million representing the value of the 18 million tons of rock his family can’t mine. “We don’t want their money,” Hardin said. “We just want to use our property. So far, all we’ve been able to do is pay taxes. And they raise the taxes every year.”
For now, a court order has put the measure on hold while challenges work their way up to the Oregon Supreme Court.
Source: Associated Press, Oregon’s Landmark Land Use Laws Threatened By Ballot Measure, January 31, 2001.
For text http://www.msnbc.com/local/rtor/m10908.asp?cp1=1
For more on Measure 7 http://www.lcd.state.or.us
For more on Land Use Controls http://www.ncpa.org/pd/state/state4.html
RSA Note:
Strong property rights protection is arguably one of the most important factors in the long-term growth of the American economy. Unfortunately, the disrespect that the apartheid government and other South African administrations showed for property rights in the past may deprive black South Africans of property rights protection in the future.
Those who were denied such protection in the past should be assured that they will never be unjustly deprived of their property in the future the best way to grant that assurance is to institute strong constitutional and legal prohibitions against government takings of any form of property for public purposes without just compensation.
