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Land-use Initiative Gets Rolling in Idaho

By Headwaters News, 6-30-06

Much has been written on these pages about Oregon's Measure 37, a voter-passed initiative that allows landowners to seek redress against local governments' land-use decisions that affect property values.

Dan Richardson has been tracking for NewWest the effects of the Oregon law, and other states' and counties' attempts to pass similar legislation.

Today, an Associated Press story in the Twin Falls Times-News reports that Idaho has its own version of Measure 37, and that the proponent of the measure has gathered enough signatures to put the matter before Idaho voters in November.

Idaho's initiative differs from Oregon's in that the Idaho one allows for monetary compensation only--Oregon's allows for policy changes in lieu of compensation--and Idaho's Proposition 2 also applies to new rules on farming and forest lands.

Laird Maxwell, the sponsor of the initiative, told a Spokane Spokesman-Review reporter that Idahoans should place their faith in the marketplace to craft development solutions, rather than depending on government planners.

But a Coeur d'Alene attorney who does work for the Association of Idaho Cities said the measure would be incredibly harmful to the state, opening the door to unimaginable claims against local governments.

Such claims are already adding up in Oregon, with the state’s web site reporting that $3.4 billion in claims have been filed under the 2004 law.

Idaho’s initiative has drawn the attention—and money—of out-of-state groups. Two groups, one from Montana and the other from New York, contributed $330,000 to the campaign to get the initiative on the ballot. The Fund for Democracy, based in New York, contributed $237,000 of the $330,000; and a Kalispell, Mont., group--America At Its Best—pitched in the rest according to the Spokesman-Review.

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