What makes Oregon Different?

Our Land Use Planning System shapes our landscapes and communities

Land use planning is about all the ways we rely on and manage land—for people, housing, agriculture, transportation, recreation, wildlife, and more. Fifty years ago, Oregon voters made our land-use system a national model. What is it, and why does it make Oregon so special?

The Start of Oregon’s Land Use Planning System

In the 1960s, Oregonians were increasingly troubled by the loss of farmland and forests across the state. Unbridled growth meant that urban development was sprawling across the state at a rapid pace. In 1973, Governor Tom McCall made an impassioned plea to the Oregon legislature to enact a statewide land use planning program to protect Oregon's threatened agricultural and forest industries and protect natural resources. 

Governor McCall saw Oregon's rivers and streams, forests and farms as irreplaceable treasures.

The legislature responded to Governor McCall's call to action with Senate Bill 100.

This landmark statewide land use system was based on this simple concept: urban uses and development belong inside cities and towns while rural lands should be preserved for farms, forests, and open space.

To accomplish this, each city and town would be ringed by an urban growth boundary. This would foster growth inside cities and towns, creating tight-knit communities while protecting the surrounding landscapes from sprawl. 

19 Goals for Oregon

With broad public input from residents across the state, Oregon established nineteen state and regional planning goals. These include broad rights of public participation in land use decisions, protection of wildlife habitat, preservation of agricultural land, and conservation of forestlands.

A LAW IS ONLY AS STRONG AS THE WILL TO ENFORCE IT

While the sweeping impact of Oregon’s new land use system was a remarkable step in the right direction, the land use laws would not enforce themselves.

There was the risk that local governments could ignore these land use laws altogether, or interpret them out of existence. Governor McCall foresaw the importance of having land use watchdogs to ensure that Oregon's comprehensive land use planning law was actually carried out.

This is where Central Oregon LandWatch plays a vital role.

LandWatch was founded in 1986 as a public interest nonprofit to ensure Oregon's statewide land use planning laws were upheld. 

Today, our role as watchdog is to sound the alarm and draw attention to threats to the quality of life of our beautiful region. We advocate for the proper interpretation of Oregon's land use laws, and instigate lawsuits when necessary to obtain judicial review of planning decisions we see as threatening to the public interest or to the well-being of the community.

Over the years, LandWatch has had a significant impact in preserving the livability of Central Oregon, conserving our natural resources, and directing growth where it makes the most sense.

The work of a watchdog organization

LandWatch began with a successful challenge to a timber sale of old-growth trees on the banks of Whychus Creek in the 1980s.

Since then, LandWatch has brought several highly publicized lawsuits, including the fight to achieve permanent protection for the Metolius River Basin, and a hard-won 70% reduction in a proposed 8400-acre expansion of the City of Bend's urban growth boundary.

Recently LandWatch prevailed in keeping industrial uses away from working farmland, and secured a perpetual easement to protect a crucial east-west wildlife migration corridor for mule deer between their summer range in the Cascades to their winter range at Paulina, south of Sunriver.

As a watchdog for Central Oregon, we continually monitor proposed land use development across Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties. When we see something that clearly violates federal or state environmental or land use law, we sound the alarm. We advocate for public input when possible and instigate lawsuits when absolutely necessary. 

With the right laws in place, we have the tools we need to ensure a sustainable future for all of Central Oregon.

Land Use Planning Updates