Pat Farr: SB 100 does not work in 2025; Oregon land use rules are ‘stupidly outdated’

Presenter: Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr said the state’s land use rules are stupidly outdated, and that Oregon’s landmark Senate Bill 100 is no longer working. His comments grew out of a discussion about needs in rural areas of the county. During the June 10 afternoon session, Commissioner Heather Buch:

Commissioner Heather Buch: …The impact to communities is all relative, right? So, the rural areas have impacts that are similar to the metro areas. It’s just the difference of sheer number of people that are being served.

[00:00:34] Presenter: Commissioner Ryan Ceniga:

[00:00:36] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga: Yeah, it would be interesting as a per capita, percentage… define the problem. If you speak to some rural communities—and Florence ebbs and flows by 500 (people) depending on the weather—that’s a big number for them, you know, out of a community. Aside from their base number, I mean that’s just what goes up and down and so for them to have the funding to take that on when they come is a big deal.

[00:01:04] Presenter: Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:01:06] Commissioner Pat Farr: And I’ll talk about a case in point specifically in Florence. You know, we have archaic state land use laws. We have a property in Florence, and Commissioner Buch and I hear about this all the time, that Homes For Good is ready to build on, but the state won’t allow it, because the zoning’s not right. It’s a perfect location. Every element of it is perfect. That’s a few steps from a restaurant, from a Safeway store and other amenities, on the transportation corridor, but we can’t build there.

[00:01:35] And we could have built there two years ago, but because we have stupidly outdated state rules on land use, and we experience it here in Lane County as well as the communities like Florence, we can’t do the things that we—we have the resources, we have the money, we have the planning and everything, but the state says no.

[00:01:57] So, you know, the legislature, and you talk about it being Multnomah County-centered, it has been always, was when I was there (in the legislature), is now. Everything revolves around what’s right for the tri-county area, and not what’s right for the other 95% of our—

[00:02:15] That is a flag we need to raise up the pole, as to: How do we get the legislature and how do we get the people of Oregon to understand that what we’ve passed in Senate Bill 100 does not work in 2025?

[00:02:26] Presenter: A generation after the state’s land use agency drifted away from ensuring public involvement as stated in Planning Goal 1, we are now seeing sweeping state mandates, and Lane County officials say the system is badly broken. Their own constituents have been telling them this for years. As state Rep. Boomer Wright put it May 21:

[00:02:50] Rep. Boomer Wright: To say that they’re being cudgled with environmental rules, well, join the fricking club.