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An express lane, and make it snappy

November 12, 2007

Few things irritate customers in a grocery store more than discovering the express checkout lane clogged by "wide loads."

An express lane implicitly promises swift service to people with fewer items. When it doesn't work this way, customers wind up feeling snookered.

This is something state and local governments need to keep in mind in the wake of last week's election. Although they may not see themselves as minding a store (and some aren't used to thinking much about customer service), the resounding success of Measure 49 owes quite a bit to a clever metaphor drawn from grocery shopping. Remember?

Supporters of Measure 49 promised it would replace the previous monstrosity, Measure 37, with something far more user-friendly -- an "express lane." That lane was supposed to whisk aggrieved moms 'n' pops with small claims through Oregon's land-use system.

As of Tuesday, 6,835 property owners had filed claims under Measure 37 with the state; 7,500-plus had filed with counties. Now state and local governments will need to sort through these claims and determine which ones qualify for express-lane treatment and which ones are wide loads prohibited by Measure 49. Most of these should be stopped.

Some claims, unfortunately, have already been approved. Property owners have already won the legal right to move forward. But studies by the American Land Institute and the Metro regional government suggest that Measure 49 will have a very dramatic effect in scaling back inappropriate development on farmland.

And Measure 49 also creates an ombudsman to boost the fairness of the system. The ombudsman should investigate complaints and work to overrule unfair decisions. Among other things, the ombudsman will help to usher Oregonians into the express lane.

Measure 49 promised to expedite claims for building up to three houses even on the state's best farmland. (Developments of four to 10 houses are theoretically possible, but not on high-value farmland, forestland or water-restricted land, and only if landowners can document equivalent losses in property value. That is extremely hard to prove. Under Oregon's land-use system, even farmland has skyrocketed in value.)

True, those seeking to build big subdivisions, strip malls or other developments could also enter the express lane. If they scale back their claims dramatically -- kindly remove all the other items from your carts! -- they, too, can go through a swifter process.

We're not going to rehash the principles involved here. We never really agreed that Oregon's land-use laws were so onerous that property owners deserved loopholes or express lanes to build more houses. But that discussion is behind us.

What matters now is that Oregonians were promised an express lane, they thought property owners deserved one, and last Tuesday, 61 percent of voters approved one.

Now it's imperative for the state to deliver. Anything less would break faith with voters, and leave them feeling snookered in the aisles.

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