Illegal construction on Measure 37 subdivision

Just as we suspected when D8 Caterpillars started bulldozing on a nearby Measure 37 claim, the road construction work that started Monday and went on for most of the week was illegal.

Marion County shut it down yesterday, issuing a stop work order. But not before quite a bit of un-permitted road building took place on high-value Oregon farmland.

Why would the Measure 37 claimants – Leroy L. and Jean R. Laack, M. Duane Rawlins, Greg M. Eide, Andrew A. and Margaret Rainone – move ahead on subdivision road construction without a permit?

Why would North Santiam Paving agree to build an illegal road for them?

Why would Marion County Public Works be on the verge of allowing the construction to continue without a permit?

These are questions that we and our neighbors don't have answers to yet.

We do know that work on the site stopped yesterday afternoon, thanks in no small part to Janet Carlson, chair of the Marion County Board of Commissioners. About 4:00 pm I got a call from one of her staff, saying that Laack had agreed to cease the illegal construction.

Thursday I'd contacted Commissioner Carlson, telling her that the final order approving the subdivision (which is being appealed) says "A Major Construction Permit is required before construction of roadway and drainage improvements may commence."

A Public Works manager, Bill Worcester, already was looking into the un-permitted work, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to let Commissioner Carlson know that the Board's final order was being ignored.

What's perplexing is that I'd been told that a Public Works attorney had advised that a deal could be worked out with North Santiam Paving where they'd complete the subdivision roads without a permit, then have them inspected by the county after the fact.

Weird. You'd think that the first thing the attorney would have done was read the final order. Instead, I was the one who pointed out to Public Works what Laack and his co-Measure 37 claimants were required to do.

Thankfully, last time I looked the bulldozers were motionless and lined up neatly.

The minds of us and many neighbors are still working, however, trying to fathom why someone would purposely ignore Marion County rules and start road construction without a permit.

What this shows is the desperation of a Measure 37 claimant who's afraid that Measure 49 will pass November 6, in which case he'll be limited to three home sites (because the subdivision is on groundwater limited farmland) – rather than the 43 he wants to have.

Rushing to construction, in this case illegally, was an obvious likely side effect of referring Measure 49 to the voters rather than passing it directly. I warned about this back in June. And now it's come to pass.

To no avail for the Measure 37 claimants. County staff have told me that construction work occurring without a permit almost certainly wouldn't qualify as a "vesting" expenditure.

Well, if nothing else this shows that Measure 49 is right on target (these signs are right across from the subdivision).

Allowing "Ma and Pa" to build a few homes on long-held property, fine. Preventing would-be subdivision developers from trashing irreplaceable Oregon farm, forest, and groundwater limited land, not fine.

Especially when they ignore the rules and start their Measure 37 construction without a permit.

[Monday update: Astoundingly, I've been told that Marion County hasn't actually issued a stop work order, though the Measure 37 claimant has agreed to cease construction temporarily. It's amazing that the county is unwilling to enforce its own final order and seems to be bending over backwards to allow illegal road construction. Hopefully wiser minds will prevail soon and the claimant will be required to go through the normal application process for a Major Construction Permit.]

Comments

[Richard]

Hey, Brian; you need to pay closer attention to our Commissioners. They're a forgiving bunch. It is far better to do and ask for forgiveness than it is to ask beforehand.

[Inthewoods]

Bryan, do you own the land? didn't think so, let them build what they want.

[Brian]

Inthewoods, so you'd be OK with your neighbors doing whatever they want with their property? Put in a garbage pit, dirt bike track, hog farm, right next to you?

I think not. So please, don't give our neighbors and us advice that you aren't willing to give to yourself.

We believe in property rights. The right to use our property as state and county laws allow. Nobody has the right to come in and suck our wells dry. Or build roads without a permit.

Nobody. Not a Measure 37 claimant. Not anybody.

[Michael]

Brian, you may be interested in controlling your neighbors, but fortunately there are many others who do not. I will take my own advice, and let my neighbor do as they wish with their property.

This is not to say that my neighbor shouldn't be liable for causing real damage to my own property as a result of doing what they wish with their property.

When you say, "We believe in property rights. The right to use our property as state and county laws allow.", it becomes apparent that you believe in very limited property rights. Why did voters pass measure 37 in the first place?! Perhaps it was because voters felt that our property rights were being unfairly restricted by state and county laws!

State and county laws enacted after a property owner obtains a property, with the intention of using it for one thing or another, can be more financially damaging to the owner than what his use of that land might do to his neighbors.

If you don't like what your neighbor is doing, buy his property. If you can't do that, move somewhere else, preferably with other like-minded individuals.

[Rudolf]

Yeah...let them build the silly subdivision and drain all of the groundwater so everyone suffers. That's the better way.
Also..I think urban blight is a good thing while we are at it, might as well get rid of the parks and open spaces for more houses and McMansions. After all, tons of Kalifornians miss that urban sprawl that they tried to escape so why not recreate it here in lovely Marion County.

Yep..I can see it now...Marion county, an extension of California...
more traffic, crime, cars, and moody silly people that come with it.

[daniel platter]

most fundamental to this argument is how you measure wealth. does 49 take wealth away or preserve it??? where will landowners go when they sell out??? this is the last Eden unless you enjoy pavement!!! is the property owner wealthier with the theoretical value (dollars) that that they are sure to obtain sterilizing our greatest of all lands (as i shudder not to claim)??? Are we all better off with their forever sleeping farms and forests??? would you rather have a standing tree with intrinsic value or money in theoretical US dollars that is soon to be worthless when foreigners realize they shouldn't be lending to a war mongering country (12 trillion in debt, and unable to ever pay it back). Landowners ARE wealthy already in beauty and freedom. we take nothing from them by not allowing more poorly planned homes to be thrown up. The big losers from measure 37 are all of us, landowners or not. for once people should be less short sighted, the RIGHT thing to do would be to preserve open space. we all know this, but money clouds the minds of all, i admit that if uncountable wealth were at my feet if i were to sell my farms and forests to California, i too perhaps would falter. sometimes what is "right" goes beyond human property considerations, laws, and regulations, and there is a deeper "Right." Humanity should not destroy all that lives. when all is paved we will despair (and starve). measure 49 is a last effort by people here in oregon to transcend shallow human thinking and do what is truely "right." i hope it succeeds.