Measure 49 Only A Small Step Back From Measure 37

"The dark side of last week's vote is the impact it will have on the 7,500 families and Oregon businesses who filed Measure 37 claims. But despite the fact that Measure 49 is a bitter disappointment to many, its passage puts Oregon on an irreversible path toward greater protection of individual property rights."

"Why? Because for the first time in Oregon's 34-year-old experiment with statewide centralized land-use planning, its most zealous advocates have acknowledged that there is a need to balance the rights of the individual property owner with the desires of the planning community, and that Oregon's system has done a poor job of balancing those competing interests."

"Prior to Measure 37, every effort to change the Oregon land-use system to correct some of its most glaring inequities was met with opposition by the same urban legislators and groups who supported Measure 49."

"But thanks to Measure 37, those inequities are no longer being ignored. Finally, there seems to be universal recognition that our laws must change. It took 34 years, but the time has arrived."