By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
March 21, 2007

Planning consultant Steven Andersen is urging his Measure 37 clients to file a lawsuit against “arbitrary” action taken by the Hood River County Commission on Monday.

Andersen, the owner of Cascade Planning Associates, said he waited in vain during the regular meeting for the elected body to address a question of legality. He had challenged the county’s decision to double the cost of fees for processing land use applications resulting from a successful Measure 37 claim.

“There wasn’t any discussion at all of the questionable legal nature of this action,” said Andersen. “They simply listened to Teunis Wyers (county counsel) tell them that they can only change the fees once a year, and that is in September, so case closed.”

Andersen said ORS 215.416 directs that, “The government body shall establish fees charged for processing permits at an amount no more than the actual or average cost of providing that service.”

“The simple fact is that the law does not allow them to charge someone double what other people have to pay for the same service,” said Andersen.

He said Measure 37 claimants are submitting applications for development rights that the government took away in the first place. So, doubling the fees is “adding insult to injury.”

On Tuesday morning, Andersen, who has prepared most of Hood River County’s claims, sent a letter to his clients. He suggested they take the issue to court en masse to have it fully addressed.

“The argument has obviously fallen on deaf ears at the county level,” he said.

At the March 19 meeting, Dave Meriwether, county administrator, said planning staff had begun tracking the amount of time spent dealing with Measure 37 issues. He said the budget for that department was currently $496,000 — but revenue from permits only accounted for $36,000 of that amount.

“Obviously, our fees don’t come anywhere close to the cost of covering these applications,” said Meriwether.

Mike Benedict, planning director, said his staff now spent 70 percent of their time reviewing a spate of Measure 37 claims that were filed before the Dec. 2 deadline.

Under the law, a landowner can ask for compensation when a use has been taken away that devalues property. In lieu of making that payment, the government body can lift the restriction and restore the development right allowed at the time of acquisition. Measure 37 became law in December of 2004 and a two-year deadline was set for landowners to address zoning changes from past years.

Andersen said even though county planners are busy right now processing claims to meet a six-month deadline, their workload will soon lessen. He said no new Measure 37 claims have been filed since December and many of his clients are not interested in development — they filed claims to preserve their investment potential.

However, he said the bottom line is that landowners have been forced to wait years to reclaim a right the government took away in the first place. So, agencies in Oregon are responsible for the backlog in their workload.

After Wyers informed the commission on Monday that state law required fees to be static for one year, Meriwether recommended that no changes be made until fall. He told the county board that a complete analysis of costs would be available at that time.

Andersen did gain a reconsideration of about 15-20 claims that were previously denied. The county will allow these landowners to apply for a land use that was allowed when the property was acquired. Most of these individuals had their Measure 37 claims denied because they asked for a development right that was once allowed but then taken away — but did not match the original zoning.