Portland Measure 37 hearing next week

This coming Thursday, March 1, at 2 p.m. in City Hall, the Portland City Council will vote on the Measure 37 claim of Gary Dye (Staff Report, Word document)

Wow. What a waste of taxpayer money – your money and mine.

The site, in the Pleasant Valley neighborhood, is 16,111 square feet, in an area zoned for one home per 10,000 square feet. So it can only have one house, and that house is currently being constructed. The zoning isn’t the Measure 37 issue being contested; the applicant is dissatisfied with environmental regulations that affect where on the lot the home can be sited, and protection of trees and the rest of the property. The City has consistently held that environmental protection rules are exempted by Measure 37’s exclusion of laws relating to federal health and safety regulations. Many of our environmental zone code restrictions implement the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and Metro’s Title 3 requirements protecting steep slopes with landslide hazards.

The Staff Report states:

“In 2004 the claimant filed a similar claim under Measure 37 (PR 04-092416). In 2005, after discussions with City staff, the claimant applied for, and obtained approval of an Environmental Review to enable construction of a single family dwelling on the site (LU 05-144600 EN). The claimant subsequently withdrew the 2004 Measure 37 claim upon approval of the 2005 Environmental Review. The present claim was filed after the claimant obtained building permits for the dwelling approved with the Environmental Review, presumably based on concerns about how that decision was being enforced.”

“City of Portland staff have spent hundreds of hours with the Dyes trying to assist them with their development, helping them navigate City permitting processes and attempting to resolve their Measure 37 claim.”

Note that the application fee for a Measure 37 claim in Portland is $250. Even adding in the application fees for environmental review and the building permits for the house currently under construction, we the taxpayers are heavily subsidizing the processing of the applicants’ development on their site.

Specific concerns listed by the applicants in their claim include:

“In particular, they expressed concern over the alleged danger presented by a certain tree required to be saved under the Environmental Review. Staff outlined the means of seeking authorization to remove the dangerous tree. In addition, the Dyes expressed concerns about:
• alleged illegal activity behind their new home
• a newly created trail over their property
• the potential fire hazard presented by the vegetation behind their home
• requirements for stormwater planter boxes
• the $150 PDOT driveway permit”

In response, the staff report states:

“Environmental Zones were applied to the subject property on August 16, 1991—over three years prior to the first Dye family purchase of the property”…”The challenged Environmental Zone regulations are exempt under Section 3(E) of Measure 37 (ORS 197.362(3)(E)) because they were applied to the Dye property more than three years prior to the initial Dye family purchase” …. “In addition, the challenged regulations have actually been modified since the time of purchase to provide greater flexibility and more streamlined permitting procedures.”

The Staff Report recommends the City Council deny the claim at the hearing on Thursday. While there are always two sides to a story, and Gary Dye will have his opportunity to tell his on Thursday, it seems this case is a good example illustrating the flip side of the one given by Measure 37 supporters, poor-little-old-lady-Dorothy-English. In this case, we have applicants who appear dissatisfied with rules that were in effect when they purchased their property, and Measure 37 offers them the route to make taxpayers pay thousands of dollars in staff time to address that different issue.

We live near the border between Multnomah County and Clackamas County. Earlier this week, Clackamas County’s map showing all Measure 37 claims – pending, approved, and denied – was delivered to our home, presumably because of the mail carrier route covering both areas. It’s impressive, and worth the money the County paid to print and deliver it, to help residents understand the extent of the problem. Note that the red line with gray shading above it, towards the top of the map, shows the Urban Growth Boundary. SO many claims, many of them huge, outside it. Many more images, and good questions and analysis, on Loaded Orygun.

And these are just a few counties’ maps. How are these subdivisions going to be provided water, sewers, roads to connect their residents to urban services? Nobody knows, of course. And almost no building permits for approved claims have been issued, partly because of that and partly because the banks won’t give construction loans without knowing how people can actually live in houses built without infrastructure to support them. The current “system” isn’t working for anyone, even successful Masure 37 claimants.

Measure 37 is a mess. It’s costing taxpayers money we don’t have in our budgets, favoring the few at the expense of the many – and indeed, at the expense of many of the reasons we love Oregon. The Legislature must halt the decay and fix it to find fairness for all, before the end of this session.