Measure 37 Watch

Map of Willamette Valley Measure 37 Claims

The facts on Measure 37 claims in the Willamette Valley

• The Willamette Valley is particularly hard hit by Measure 37. Benton, Lane, Linn, Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties have a total of 2,259 Measure 37 claims, covering nearly 167,000 acres. For the sake of comparison, the entire City of Portland covers 85,952 acres of land.

• Marion County was the top agricultural county in Oregon in 2006, generating over $585 million in income. Linn, Yamhill, and Polk counties were also in the top 10. Across the states, Measure 37 would take hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland permanently out of production by paving over them for subdivisions.

• About 10% of Yamhill County's agriculturally zoned land involved Measure 37 claims. Marion County could be the site of more than 251 new subdivisions.

The Oregonian: Measure 37 Maps Elicit Shock Among Residents

Response - Officials say the public is often unaware of the land-use effects of the measure

Thursday, May 17, 2007

PETER ZUCKERMAN

The Oregonian

Most Clackamas County residents are uninformed about Oregon's Measure 37 property rights law and had a "shock-and-awe" experience when they discovered the scale of claims around the county.

That's according to the county's analysis of hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and letters from people responding to a map detailing the Measure 37 claims affecting the county.