Environmental protection vs property rights

COMPLAINT ABOUT LINK WITH NO DESCRIPTION

It’s my legacy that ya’ll expect more than just a naked link!

Working on the gubmint side of land use law, this is really interesting to watch from afar. It drops a hand grenade in the middle of a lot of planning. I wonder if the various jurisdictions have exactions & fees in place to deal with the impacts of the development? I work some in Ventura County, and there are very strong growth restrictions in place on agricultural land there. If you suddenly started building in the agricultural areas next to the urbanized areas, it would quickly overwhelm the infrastructure. Roads, sewer treatment, schools, water supplies - none of it can support a sudden spike in growth without millions and millions in new public facilities. The impact fees to pay for a share of the new infrastructure would be enormous, too. I can easily imagine fees over $100,000 per home, likely higher. Ventura County has a median home price over $500,000 and could support fees like that. Does Oregon have a housing market that can? If not, it means the homes will be built anyway, but the infrastructure will not be there so quality of life will suffer.

Regarding the fairness of the matter, there was a lawsuit a few years ago that argued the same thing against Proposition 13. Under Prop 13, the valuation of your property for property tax purposes is fixed at the time of purchase, with a very low annual increase. It gets revalued if upon sale, unless you sell it to your child or grandchild. We end up with neighbors in subdivisions paying radically different amounts of property tax for identical homes. Fair? I don’t think so, but the lawsuit ultimately failed, and the folks in the black robes opinions matter more than mine.

Prop 13 doesn’t allow assessment increase on sale to children? I knew it was absurd, but not that absurd.

I really dont’ know what to think of the suburb thing. We seem to have gotten to the point that suburbs don’t have to suck - edge cities are ok, albeit a bit boring - but there’s something still not quite right about them. Every man a car island, swimming in a sea of asphalt.

Eyeballs…bleeding…ack.

Watch it there, buddy. Keep up that kind of talk, and it’s the slavepits for you come PaveDay 1.

If they’re going to pave everything, they shouldn’t pussyfoot around. Pave the Earth! Or not. It’s the inbetween that’s the killer.