Crystal Vanderzanden drives her car up to the edge of a flat field that borders her rye grass farm. She wants to take a closer look where the proposed 48-home subdivision might sit. But she’s careful not to let her tires touch the neighbor’s field, even though she’s angry that the landowner filed a Measure 37 claim.

Unable to pay the $9.5 million claim that landowner Louise Bernards wanted for lost value, Washington County, which encompasses Portland’s western suburbs along with prime farmland, must now allow a subdivision in the middle of an area zoned exclusively for farming.

“I don’t want to drive on their field,” Crystal explains. “We drive on our own, but not someone else’s.”

Yet in a sense, Crystal Vanderzanden and her husband Bob feel their way of life is being driven over by Measure 37.

“We don’t like the law,” says Bob. “We didn’t vote for it.”

Most of Oregon’s land use laws changed in the 1970s, in part to protect farmland, and the Vanderzandens strongly believe that if Measure 37 required that their neighbor’s farmland be valued at those rates, they wouldn’t be filing a claim or seeking a housing development in the first place.

The Vanderzandens aren’t alone. The state recently notified the couple that their case could be combined with two other Measure 37-related lawsuits based on similar grounds.

Crystal Vanderzanden is on the road again, driving away from the contentious 54-acre parcel of land. She expertly navigates a labyrinth of country roads, passing nurseries, strawberry, and corn fields. Mt. Hood looms large to the East.

“Isn’t it peaceful out here?” Crystal asks. “I just can’t imagine 48 houses. I just think it’s wrong.”

The Vanderzandens fear complaints from subdivision residents about normal agricultural operations that involve spraying, lights, dust, and noise. They’ve had a taste of the urban-rural divide over the years, from city folks who rent houses next to their grass farms and then complain about routine farming activities. The couple anticipates that the number of such complaints could skyrocket with a big housing development.

Bob and Crystal Vanderzanden live near Hillsboro, just beyond the western edge of the Portland metro area. The couple met in high school. They were country kids then and in many ways they still are; both grew up near Hillsboro and don’t like the city much. With the help of a grown son, they farm 1,700 acres within an 8-mile radius of their home. The couple owns less than 15 percent of the acreage they farm; they lease the rest from other family farms in the area.

The Vanderzandens figure their willingness to farm allows older landowners to stay on rural properties longer. Their involvement with the US Farm Service Agency has helped them appreciate and fight for a rural way of life. That’s the main reason that they dislike Measure 37—it jeopardizes their way of life.

Crystal Vanderzanden sums it up: “You come out here and just try to earn a living and you have all these . . . hassles.”