Planning after M37
February 28th, 2006 by Jim JustIn the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Measure 37, it’s necessary to ponder about what we at Goal One do, and why. We’re after on-the ground results in protecting the environment and in developing a way of living that can sustain our children far into the future. We’re emphatically not “enforcers” or “defenders” of Oregon’s land use planning program. In fact, we find it pretty indefensible. A program worth defending would look much different than the one we’ve got. It would protect rural land from development, rather than authorize a long, long list of allowable uses and a myriad of ways to build ever more houses. It would allow only development that is related to and necessary to support a healthy, local rural economy. It especially wouldn’t allow for ever more commuter houses on rural land. We hear complaints that the planning program is complicated—but that’s because opponents of the program, every legislative session, invent ever more ways to develop rural land. In urban areas, a defensible planning program would simply not allow for any further expansion of the urban footprint, rather than mandating growth and expansion of urban growth boundaries. Advocates of growth would have to be willing to see it accommodated within the existing urban boundaries. The age of cheap, abundant oil is over, and the urgency of drastically and immediately reducing CO2 emissions is becoming ever more apparent. A defensible planning program would stop investing in automobile-related infrastructure, instead of mandating that we build more ever more roads and parking lots. We should be planning to minimize the need for transportation in the first place while providing for energy-efficient alternatives to cars and trucks. The zoning system we have allows for and even mandates sprawl and segregation, both racial and economic. The planning program is a clumsy, ill-designed tool—but it’s about the only tool citizens have to use to protect their neighborhoods and their environment. Measure 37 means that even this limited tool won’t be able to be used in many situations. It’s time that we think about craft other, better tools, honed to effectively address the converging crises of energy and climate change. —Jim Just