The Oregon House’s vote Monday for the Metolius resort ban clears the way for some nasty fallout to the state’s land use system.
The vote sells the land use system to whomever has the most influence in Salem. That’s not a win for anyone.
The ban’s passage looked a safe bet from the start. Gov. Ted Kulongoski wanted it to protect the Metolius River Basin from two proposed destination resorts. If necessary, he always had Democratic majorities in the Oregon Legislature to trump the land use process. State Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Cabin on the Metolius headwaters, was a powerful ally — along to keep the basin safe for those fortunate enough to have already built in the basin.
Nobody really debated the basin’s beauty or the desire to keep it special. But there was a debate about private property rights and the sanctity of the state’s land use law.
The state may not be “taking” anyone’s private property, but it is essentially doing the same thing by stripping landowners of development rights.
The fair thing to do would be for the state to step up and pay the owners for that. That’s not in the bill. Instead, we’ll see what happens in court.
Then there’s the state’s land use law. Jefferson County followed those rules. Landowners of proposed resorts followed those rules. Is it right for the state then to come in and change the rules?
If that’s the way Oregon is going to conduct land use, property owners are going to have a heck of a time deciding what they can and can’t do.
Supporters of the bill are happy. There are going to be repercussions, though. If the Legislative make-up changes, this vote makes it all the easier for a different Legislature to make other land use changes. Supporters of this bill may not like those so much.
When political influence and the vagaries of the Legislature usurp the state’s land use process, there effectively is no state land use process. There is just whichever way the hot air is blowing from Salem.