Special Series
Measure 63 in Oregon
In a Series
Oregon's Measure 63
I know everyone's in the throes of the Obama-McCain frenzy, but allow me to divert your attention to a minor ballot initiative in Oregon: Measure 63. Oh it's fascinating, I assure you.
Measure 63 is the last whimpering gasp of the property rights measures that originated in Oregon. (If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember when I was as obsessed with pay-or-waive as I now am with cap-and-trade.)
Times change. It was just a few years ago when property rights radicals dreamed of essentially putting a stop to growth planning, and even rolling back basic land use restrictions. Unfortunately for them, it turns out that voters like land use laws. Kind of a lot actually. (See here, here, and here.) So the property activists have retreated from grand plans of world domination to petty little schemes that will still manage to annoy neighbors and undermine local governments.
All Measure 63 really does is end requirements for building permits when the improvement value is less than $35,000. It's not such a big deal maybe, but it's also kind of silly. For one thing, permits are really the primary means of ensuring that buildings conform to important health and safety codes. And as is so often the case with ballot measures, the language is a bit daft, leaving open several possible loopholes.
Later this month I'll spend some time analyzing Measure 63 -- or at least making fun of it. But I'm just too darn lazy today. Instead, here's a quick roundup of the little that's being said about the measure in Oregon...
