Hearing Today on Far-Reaching Property Rights Measure

SALEM, OR-Government officials throughout Oregon are waiting to see if the nation’s most far-reaching property right measure will go into effect tomorrow. Measure 7, approved by 53% of voters in November, requires “payment to landowner if government regulation reduces property value.” It’s supporters say it will cost government no more than $50 million to $100 million per year. It’s opponents put the annual impact at closer to $5.4 billion because they believe that several dozen types of laws–from building height limits to solid waste disposal restrictions–may qualify for Measure 7 claims.

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the measure was filed yesterday in Marion County Circuit Court by the League of Oregon Cities and others. Today, Circuit Judge Paul Lipscomb is scheduled to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction sought in a seperate lawsuit filed by the mayors of Salem and Jacksonville, and Audrey McCall, widow of former Gov. Tom McCall, who is credited with designing Oregon’s vaunted system of land-use and environmental rules.

For a preliminary injunction, lawyers must convince the judge that Measure 7 would cause “irreparable damage” if allowed to take effect, and that their lawsuit has a “substantial likelihood of success” at trial. Without an injunction, the measure goes into effect tomorrow, at which time the Oregon attorney general’s office–which has had some 15 lawyers working on the issue since its passage–will release an opinion on the legal scope and meaning of Measure 7. The report is meant to help guide cities and counties, many of which have already begin approving procedures for dealing with Measure 7 claims, and the fees they will charge to process the claims. The fees have ranged from a high of $3,500 in Fairview, a few miles east of Portland, to a low of $200 in Pendleton, a few hundred miles east of Portland.