Central Oregon Landwatch led a critical effort that protected citizen access to our land use system by working to defeat SB 186. This legislation would have taken away the rights of most Oregonians to pursue an appeal before the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). Citizens throughout Oregon have for 30 years had access to LUBA because decisions regarding whether and where to locate large-scale development, industrial lands, destination resorts, or areas of critical state concern are of statewide significance. We led a strong coalition of non-profit, community-based organizations in opposition to the bill so that Oregonians can continue to have access to their own court system. Our legislative research, public testimony and numerous communications with key legislators were ultimately successful in killing this bill. SB 186 died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Central Oregon LandWatch fought to protect citizen access to land use decisions through our leadership on SB 452. Currently, several ‘rouge’ counties are exploiting a loophole in state law and charging excessive fees to appeal their own land use decisions. A few counties have set these appeal fees so high that citizens and community groups cannot afford to even have their day in court. At our request, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced SB 452 to limit the amount a county or city can charge to appeal its decisions. We built bi-partisan support for our proposal and led a successful public hearing in the Senate General Government Committee.
We are well suited to build off this momentum with similar legislation in 2013.
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