Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:00 am
There were enough conditional clauses in Measure 49 that some of us thought the whole thing was a con. Now a memo from the state Department of Land Conservation and development seems to prove it.
Voters approved this measure in the election that ended Nov. 6. Among the claims made by the proponents was that the measure, while stopping big claims to develop land under Measure 37, would allow small claims to go ahead. Also, 49 would go beyond Measure 37 by allowing small M37 claimants to transfer their development rights to others.
On Friday, 10 days after the voting was over, the DLCD issued the draft of a memo as "preliminary guidance" to county planning departments.
The gist of this guidance was that the only Measure 37 claims that could go ahead were those that had acquired a "vested right" to do so. But no single action on the part of the owners - not even having gone through all the Measure 37 steps and been issued a building permit - would give them a "vested right" to go ahead.
And oh, by the way, even in the unlikely event anyone had obtained a vested right under Measure 37, "Ballot Measure 49 does not make a vested right obtained under Ballot Measure 37 transferable."
In other words, all the campaign promises and statements by the backers of Measure 49 are not likely to be borne out without somebody - probably a court - deciding one case at a time whether in that case a vested right had been established.
The backers of Measure 49 are not stupid. They knew what they were doing. The way they wrote the measure, and the way they phrased the ballot title, was designed to pull the wool over Oregon's eyes. Some of us who opposed the measure suspected this before election day. The guidance now issued by the DLCD confirms it.
The measure was phrased to make it seem to affirm some property rights, but in fact it fairly invited an interpretation that did the exact opposite.
Seen in the light of the DLCD memo, the ballot measure was a deception, one that is costing some of our fellow citizens tens of thousands of dollars.
In coming elections for state offices, voters have reason to remember the legislators who brought them this fraud. (hh)