Since the 1970s, Oregon has pioneered
land-use laws to preserve rural landscapes, prevent
irresponsible suburban development, and support local businesses
over big-box stores (HCN, 11/25/02: Planning’s poster child grows
up). Now, Oregonians in Action, a private-property rights group, is
supporting an initiative that would force the state to compensate
private-land owners who are restricted from subdividing and selling
their land. Measure 37 — which the secretary of state’s
office estimates would cost $344 million a year in administrative
costs alone — is opposed by environmental groups, mayors,
1,000 Friends of Oregon and the state AFL-CIO, which has nicknamed
the measure “the Wal-Mart Expansion Act.” According to the union,
the measure would allow big box stores to partner with landowners
and “demand budget-busting payments from local governments when
they try and enforce their land-use laws.”
An initiative sponsored by Heart of America
Northwest, a Seattle-based nonprofit, would prohibit the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation from accepting any more mixed or
hazardous waste from other facilities until its own toxic and
radioactive waste is safely cleaned up or stored. More than 280,000
Washington voters signed a petition to get the initiative on
November’s ballot. But the Tri-Industrial Development
Council, an organization of 270 businesses, worries that if
it’s passed, Initiative 297 will set an example for other
states, such as Nevada or New Mexico — and Washington could
someday be prevented from shipping its nuclear waste to other
states.
While the Republican National
Convention was in full swing at the end of August, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was opening 243,500
acres of wildlife refuges to fishing and hunting. According to a
news story in The Seattle Times: “Asked if it might help President
Bush’s re-election efforts, the agency’s director,
Steve Williams said, ‘This is just another example of the
president’s commitment to sportsmen.’ “
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Racetrack.
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