Oregon's Property Rights and Planning

Thousand Friends Wants You … To Talk

By Sam Lowry, Guest Writer, 6-29-06

Okay, so no-one ever actually said that the Big Look task force was going to engage Oregonians on their home turf, hold town-halls around the state, ask for input.

Most assumed they would – it’s the way it was done in 1974, when 10,000 Oregonians weighed in during initial development of the statewide land use planning program. But the 10-member task force has decided against it. So 1000 Friends of Oregon are doing it instead.

“For now, we are the dialogue," Friends director Bob Stacey said during a break at last week’s “Envision Oregon” forum in Hood River – the second of seven public meetings the land-use watchdog group has planned around the state with cosponsors the Coalition for a Livable Future, Oregon Business Association, SOLV, League of Women Voters, and the Bus Project.

“We want to create statewide buzz. That’s good for the task force, and good for planning,” said Stacey.

It’s also cheeky, coming from the state’s foremost advocates for strong planning, unhesitant litigators and lightning rods for the kind of criticism that led to passage of Measure 37 in 2004.

But like everyone else, Thousand Friends knows that it’s a brave new post-M37 world, created by popular vote and upheld by the state Supreme Court. Having lost at the ballot box (and later in the courtroom), Friends embarked on a risky new strategy: getting people to talk about their state rather than the headlines.

“We have toned it down a bit,” Stacey said. “We are trying to engage the broadest possible cross-section of the citizenry.”

About 100 people, at tables of eight in the Hood River Hotel’s downstairs ballroom, were asked to share what they like about Oregon now and what they want to see in 30 years. After consolidating table-mates’ thoughts into concise statements, three about now and three about the future, representatives from all tables met to craft final statements that would do justice to 100 voices.

The roll-up, individual input, and a summary will be forwarded to the Big Look task force.

“It’s a responsibility,” Stacey said. “We are asking the basic question: ‘What should we [as a state] be doing next?’ There doesn’t have to be a political message beyond that.”

DISAGREEMENT WELCOME

“I am a population hater,” said Don Leathem of Boring at Table 5, in favor of Oregon’s low headcount.

“I put down Tom McCall’s legacy … and the potential for a variety of farming,” added his wife, Kaino.

As Ken Maddox, Paul Randall, George Early and Susan Crowley, all from the Hood River area, added their thoughts, consolidation began at Table 5.

“Appreciation [for the land and landscape] is just not strong enough. How about ‘love’? or ‘reverence’?” someone asked.

The group settled on “high regard”; then added contributions two and three: “progressive thinking/McCall legacy/access to decision makers” and “protection of the environment.”

Most of those brainstorming at Table 5 last week were retirees; all are worried.

“The only thing we’re mad about is Measure 37,” Harmon, of Hood River, said later. “It’s just pretty sick. From 1957 to 1967 I lived in the Santa Clara valley. It went from one high school to eight in that time. I gave them the Santa Clara valley …” and moved to Oregon. “There are things wrong with LCDC; they could have been addressed with vision and talk.”

Some others found such passions a bit too monochrome.

Keith Harding of Hood River, on a break from another table, wished there were more diversity of opinion in the room. He’s been in difficult land-use negotiations and thinks it essential for people to disagree face-to-face. “Getting to consensus is a very slow process – finding common ground.”

Friends also drew this particular criticism at their first forum in Corvallis last month, attended by more than 200, almost exclusively pro-planning citizens.Thousand Friends crowds in need of catharsis, maybe. But the organizers don’t want it that way.

“We asked Dave Hunnicut” – director of property rights advocates for Oregonians in Action (OIA)
– “about so-sponsorship,” Stacey noted. “We never heard back. ... Still, someone came to me today and said, all conspiratorial, ‘Did you know there are Measure 37 supporters here?’ Well … that is good!”

Stacey, Friends’ Envision coordinator Rob Zako, and their Friends colleagues want to believe that the uncomplicated emotions on exhibit, centered around love for Oregon’s landscape, can be reconciled with property-rights angst.

“We don’t think the values are contradictory,” Stacey said. “Just the positions are contradictory.”

TASK FORCE TAKES A DIFFERENT TACK

Call it a blow or an act of firmness, but the Big Look task force, in its final work plan made public on June 2, repudiated the idea of “open-ended ‘public involvement’ on generalized topics,” despite entreaties from many quarters.

“The research presented in detail at the May 10 … meeting provided a sufficient snapshot of generalized public opinion at this time,” said chairman Mike Thorne’s cover letter, addressed to Governor Ted Kulongoski.

A public involvement subcommittee, consisting of task force members Judie Hammerstad and Steve Clark, on Monday did issue a broad call for individual input – in the form of an online survey.

Response is due by July 10, and the survey is part of the task force’s results-minded strategy: to identify issues first, analyze and frame them, then ask the public to weigh options – in 2007.

The Friends are critical of waiting so long to involve Oregonians in talk about the future of their state.

“We have suggested to the task force that they engage early and not go asking questions after they’ve made up their minds,” Stacey said at the Hood River forum.

Even so, he recognizes the limits of their resources. So does task force member Ken Bailey of The Dalles – who also came down to the Hood River envisioning meeting.

“The direction is right for the resources,” Bailey said. “The task force is satisfied that there are not a lot of brand new issues.”

And then Bailey offered an insight: “We don’t want the task force to be driving the issue. Maybe it’s better that others drive it.”

Any thought that not doing full outreach might be controversial?

“I was only surprised that the question didn’t arise earlier,” Bailey said.

A FORUM FOR EVERY CORNER OF THE STATE

Envision Oregon’s second outing drew interest from prominent quarters: Bailey, State Senator Rick Metzger, Metro Councilor Rod Park, Hood River-area officials, Oregonian reporter Laura Oppenheimer, and cosponsor Oregon Business Association’s president Lynn Lundquist were there, among others.

But does the task force’s distancing leave Thousand Friends twisting in the wind?

The group – and their cosponsors – are betting the farm that it does not.

“What does it take to get Oregonians to talk to one another and tell their legislators what they think? We are trying to find that out,” said Stacey.

Forums are planned in Portland on August 3, then over the next nine months in Bend, Medford, LaGrande, and Bandon.

Sam Lowry is a freelance writer and contributor to New West Columbia Gorge.

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