Measure 37's First Case Still Unsettled
Preparations are underway to take Oregon's land use legislation Measure 37 back to the ballot this November, but the property rights case that became the face issue still remains unsettled.
"Opponents of Measure 37 persuaded the Legislature to put a measure on the November ballot that would curb what they say are excesses allowed under the property rights measure."
"Just as the fight over Measure 37 is unsettled, so is English’s fight – at least, as far as the lawyers are concerned."
"She bought land in 1953, and since has sold off two plots. English filed a Measure 37 claim in December 2004 on her remaining land to create eight parcels on which to build homes. Since her land is not within the urban growth boundary, she did not have that ability before the measure passed."
"A Measure 37 claim forces a local government to choose whether to waive regulations that affected the property value, or to reimburse landowners for the effect of those regulations on their land."
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Dorothy English - Greedy Granny
Here's what I wrote on this matter back in February, when Dorothy first claimed she could develop to 1953 standards:
Well, little old lady and media star Dorothy English doesn't just want to put eight houses on her twenty acres on McNamee Road northwest of Portland. She wants to avoid all other common sense rules and regulations regarding the development of land.
So Dorothy, do you want to put in cesspools to dump sewage into the ground like they did back in 1953 when you bought the property? Do you want to use asbestors-filled building materials? There were plenty of those back in 1953 too.
Dorothy, by the way, is represented by one of the more shark-like of the land use attorneys in the Portland Metro Area, from the Schwabe gang. So I'll ask you Joe W., if Dorothy wants to use knob and tube wiring like they did in 1953 to electrify her house (and perhaps herself and her guests as well), do you think that's OK? If Dorothy wants to turn in a plat to the Multnomah County Surveyor on the back of a cocktail napkin, with a mete and bound measurement "from McNamee Road to the old outhouse out back," is that OK?
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