Cascadia Scorecard News
September 2006

The defining controversy of the early 21st century in the Northwest states may well turn out to be the debate over property, community, and fairness. What should property owners be allowed to do with their land? Should they be compensated when a community's rules affect them? And what about compensation for neighbors and community when the rules fail to protect them?

This fall, these questions will get a hearing at the ballot box in six Western states. Modeled after Oregon's disastrous Measure 37, which passed in 2004, these proposals threaten to severely impair communities' ability to plan for the future. They will likely cost taxpayers billions of dollars and may unfairly put neighbors at the mercy of irresponsible developers.

In a nutshell, the initiatives say that when a regulation, such as a residential-only zoning ordinance, reduces a property's profit potential, the government should either pay the property owner for the allegedly lost value or else waive the regulation. (For shorthand, this sort of scheme is sometimes called "pay-or-waive.") But governments and taxpayers are in no position to pay every property owner who wants compensation for obeying the law; so, as a result, laws simply get waived.

If the initiatives are passed, evidence suggests that communities will lose the right to plan for their future, and neighbors will lose the right to protect their property from what goes on next door. Unless they are compensated with a cash payment from taxpayers, property owners can get a waiver from all sorts of laws-laws that prevent contaminating groundwater, or that ban heavy industry in a residential area, If the initiatives are passed, evidence suggests that or that limit loud noise and noxious odors.

In fact, under Measure 37 in Oregon, gravel mining is being allowed near residences and in small communities that cannot afford to pay developers to obey local land-use laws.

So far, almost the only thing that all sides agree on is that Oregon started it. Oregon voters passed Measure 37 in 2004, which is likely a knock out for the state's growth management laws. Across Oregon, neighbors and communities are crying foul. One landowner in the state is threatening to build an energy plant and suburban subdivision in the middle of a national monument-unless taxpayers pay him more than $200 million. And farmers across Oregon are claiming they were duped: from the Willamette Valley to eastern Oregon, prime farmland may be plowed under to make way for subdivisions.

In the aftermath of Oregon's vote, a series of state-by-state attacks were introduced in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Washington. There's an uncanny similarity between initiatives, perhaps because all the initiatives in the Western states are funded by the same person, New York real estate tycoon Howard Rich. And they all use a simple strategy: confuse voters by muddling personal rights with weakening protections for communities.

Communities have a right to chart their future and neighbors have a right to fair treatment under the law. But the property initiatives promise to gut protections, hamstring local decision-making, and put northwesterners at the mercy of a government held hostage by claims.

What will happen in November? If the initiatives pass, the consequences of these anti-community ballot measures are likely to be as far-reaching and profound as Measure 37 is in Oregon. They will affect not only land use, urban growth, and property values, but also traffic congestion, energy dependence, affordable housing, water quality, wildlife, and more.

Sightline will continue a series on the impact of property initiatives in the Northwest and will keep you updated on the latest developments. (You can sign up for weekly blog updates here.)

Find out about the initiatives in your state
Get the facts on Washington's Initiative 933
Send a letter to your editor
Share your stories about the effects of Measure 37
Sightline's ongoing series on property fairness
Get the latest Northwest stories about property fairness on Tidepool