Goal One Institute is a nonprofit research and communication center - a think tank - based in Eugene, Oregon. Our mission is to foster a transition to truly sustainable human communities within an intact and healthy global ecosystem. Our primary focus is on the unprecedented challenges of peak oil and global warming and on the role of land use in meeting those challenges.

Nonpartisan and independent, Goal One Institute is committed to the land ethic as voiced by Aldo Leopold:

“All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. . . . The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.”

Policy & Research

Goal One Institute publishes original policy and research reports on specific projects in Oregon, including analysis and recommendations for action. We also provide commentary on land use, energy, and climate issues at our blog, One Town Square.

Legislative Alerts

Get up-to-date information about proposed and pending changes to land use policies and regulations in Oregon, including opportunities for public involvement.

Current Projects

Issues on which Goal One Institute is currently working include:

Closer to Home, the movie

Goal One Coalition is serving as fiscal sponsor for the ongoing film project, Closer to Home, the movie.  The film will “shed light on the myriad benefits of living life more simply and more focused on developing and using local resources with the help of one’s surrounding community. It’s not simply a matter of saving oil or money. The people we interview will expound on the social benefits, including more free time, better family ties and the happiness that comes from nurturing a sense of community.” For more information, visit the official website at www.closertohomemovie.com. You can also make a donation to the film here.

The Big Look

The Oregon Task Force on Land Use Planning (also known as the Big Look Task Force) was created by Senate Bill 82 (2005) in response to the passage of Measure 37.  The Task Force was charged to conduct a comprehensive review of the Oregon Statewide Planning Program and make recommendations to the 2009 Legislature for needed changes to land-use policy.

The Task Force in June 2008 distributed a briefing booklet to “stakeholders” summarizing its ideas for reforming Oregon’s Land Use Planning Program and containing its preliminary recommendations.

Goal One Coalition was invited to meet with Task Force representatives and to respond to the Task Force’s recommendations. Our view, in sum is:

We believe an honest review of the preliminary recommendations compels a conclusion that the Task Force has failed to realistically and adequately identify “the current and future needs of Oregonians” or to evaluate the role of the land use planning program in meeting those needs. . . .

Revamping Oregon’s planning program to effectively meet the unprecedented challenges we face requires setting aside old issues and ideologies to take an unencumbered look at what reality requires of us. We believe that it is imperative that LCDC and DLCD play a lead role in forging and implementing a statewide response to our energy and climate challenges so as to maintain human prosperity within a healthy and stable ecosystem for all generations to come.

The full text of Goal One Coalition’s letter to the Task Force is available here.

Destination Resorts

Originally conceived as a way to provide temporary housing and amenities for tourists coming to experience Oregon’s many natural treasures, destination resorts have morphed into a gigantic loophole that allows urban-scale subdivisions outside of urban growth boundaries.  The negative impacts are overwhelming farming, forest, and coastal communities, as well as taxing the rural transportation infrastructure, water supplies, and emergency services.  Goal One Coalition is at the forefront of efforts to rein in these developments and the abuses to our natural resources and community livability. Click here to learn more.

Reforming the local decision-making process

Over the past several years Goal One Coalition has become increasingly aware of pressing problems with local appeals procedures and costs around the state. The hearings and appeals process is complicated, convoluted, repetitive, time consuming; and is becoming so costly that Oregon citizens - applicants and neighbors alike - are in effect being priced out of the process.

Goal One Institute is recommending amendments to the Oregon Revised Statutes to simplify and streamline the local decision-making process and to reduce the cost to local governments of reaching a final decision on applications for permits and zone changes. Currently, state law requires local governments to provide opportunity for at least one public hearing, and caps the fee for that initial public hearing at $250. State law also allows for local governments to provide opportunities for one or more local appeals. No restrictions are imposed on fees for these additional appeals, except that the fee may not exceed the cost to the local government of providing the appeal. Many local governments have imposed fees amounting to multiple thousands of dollars. For example, the cost of an appeal in Lane County can exceed $3,500.

Such high fees effectively thwart statewide planning Goal 1 by pricing people out of the process.

Goal One Institute’s recommended solution to the proliferation of prohibitive appeals fees is:

• Amend existing statutory language to emphasis that a single-hearing process is the default process. Local governments would retain their existing authority to review decisions at their own discretion.
• If local governments chose to provide options for local appeals, fees for such appeals would be capped at the same cost as for the initial public hearing - $250.

Draft language for proposed amendments to ORS 215.422 (counties) is available here.

Draft language for proposed amendments to ORS 227.180 (cities) is available here.

Goal One is working in partnership with LandWatch Lane County to implement this concept in Lane County. Draft code language is available here.

We all need to pitch in to ensure that these urgently needed reforms to the local decision-making process are enacted at the next legislative session. Please contact your state representative and state senator now, talk to them about problems you have encountered in your communities, and urge them to support this reform effort.