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Bob Stacey has more than a 1000 friends

Even as he joins an elite group of land-use planners, head of 1000 Friends of Oregon prefers to keep feet on ground and nose to grindstone

Posted: Monday, April 28, 2008
By Tyler Graf

Bob Stacey is both a lawyer and a certified city planner. But as the executive director of 1000 Friends of Oregon, the non-profit organization working to maintain the state’s unique urban growth system, his ambitions and his recognition remain on the planning end.

Yesterday, Stacey entered a small fraternity of land-use planners to be awarded a “fellowship” by the national chapter of the American Planners Association.

With more than 15,000 certified planners nationally, only 400 are fellows. Oregon, Stacey says, is noteworthy for having a high percentage of fellows, about 10, due in part to its statewide policies – policies Stacey helped maintain.

Stacey has worked for 1000 Friends of Oregon, on and off, since the 1970s, when he was a lawyer for the nascent non-profit. For the last six years, he’s acted as the organization’s leader, ushering it through a new age of prominence as a result of two contentious land-use ballot measures: Measure 37, which rolled back some state land-use regulations, and Measure 49, which reinstated most of them.

With yesterday’s fellowship award, the long-time advocate of the state’s land-use planning system was thrust into the ranks of Oregon planners like Paddy Tillett of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects and Arnold Cogan, the first director of the Oregon Land Development and Conservation Department.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, for whom Stacey served as counsel, has called Stacey one of the 10 most important city planners in Oregon history.

Greg Winterowd, the president of the Oregon chapter of the American Planners Association, calls him “Oregon’s conscience for land-use planning.” He’s known Stacey for 28 years.

“Since I met Stacey, his organization has grown considerably,” Winterowd said. “Without Stacey’s participation, given the process in the early 1980s, the state-wide land-use planning would have been much less effective.”

A graduate of Reed College and the University of Oregon School of Law, Stacey has worked in both the private sector, for law firm Ball Janick, and the public sector, as the planning director for TriMet.

Despite the appeal to work in the private sector, the draw to have a major impact on the state’s land-use planning policies is far greater for Stacey.

For Winterowd, Stacey’s fluctuation between the public and private sectors signifies a dual relationship – between Stacey’s role as both lawyer and planner, and an indicator of his ability to navigate the disparate cultures presented by the corporate and public-policy world.

“There’s the sentiment that if you work in the non-profit sector, you can’t hack it in the private sector,” he said. “Bob’s proven you can.”

Heady accolades, honors and awards aren’t what drives Stacey in his work with 1000 Friends of Oregon, however. He continues to view himself in simple terms, as a planner and a lawyer who wants to help Oregon move toward its future.

“Compact development is going to show dividends in the next decade,” Stacey said. “If we’re able to keep our system together and make sure it works fairly, efficiently, and that it doesn’t slow down business locations, we’ll keep all of our benefits.”

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