Original Measure 37 Case May Reach Settlement

1 February 2007 - 5:00am

The land rights battle that spurred the passage of Oregon's Measure 37 may come to an end, with a county-approved expedited process that would divide 22-acres of land into 8 lots.

"If approved and agreed to by English’s lawyers, the proposal would save the county $1.15 million in compensation that it otherwise would need to pay English. English won the right to that compensation late last year after she filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court."

"Because of her difficulty in dividing her Multnomah County land into smaller parcels, English became the chief petitioner of Measure 37, a property rights measure that voters approved in 2004."

"The measure allows landowners to file for compensation from governments when new land regulations adopted after they purchased the property diminish the value of that property."

"After voter approval of Measure 37, county leaders in 2005 and 2006 approved orders that waived regulations to allow English to divide the land."

"But even after those orders, English and her lawyers argued, many regulations remained in place that made it difficult or impossible to build homes on the lots."

Source: The Portland Tribune, January 30, 2007
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For the past half century we have been building communities for the wrong reasons. We built them to sell cars. This created all sorts of problems.