Stephen Williams lives on 30 acres near tiny Williams, Oregon — 12 miles south of Grants Pass. Semi-retired, he runs a small nursery operation on one part of his land and a wood lot on the other parcel. Although Stephen himself has filed a claim under Measure 37, he is distressed over the large-scale residential subdivisions and commercial and industrial development that is taking place under Measure 37. Measure 49 as a good fix, Stephen says.

He bought his property with the intention of selling part of it to fund a secure retirement but land use laws changed and prevented him from doing it. "The land use laws needed tweaking, although not that much," he says.

Around his area, there are a couple of big claims filed under Measure 37 in the Williams and Applegate Valleys. One would divide 100 acres of forested land into 5-acre home sites and another would carve a 160 acres into on- and two-acre lots. But he is most distressed about a plan to create a gravel pit in the Applegate Valley "about six miles from us. The main thing about the gravel pit is that it would mean 220 big truck trips per day," Stephen says. The small, winding country road and old, historic bridge simply could not handle that kind of traffic safely, he says.

"It would be unsafe for the school kids and for bike riders. There are wineries popping up along there and it would not be safe for the folks visiting those wineries," he says. This would make the gravel company and a couple of land owners very rich," he says, "but it would hurt the businesses of the wineries and others around here." Opposition to the gravel pit is growing, he says.

"We are all praying for Measure 49 to pass," he says. "Measure 37 was a subterfuge. It was billed as a fix for the little guy, but it turned out that it is making millionaires out of a few people," he says. "Measure 49 is brilliant. It addresses the things that are the most horrible about Measure 37. Property right are one thing, but destroying the state is another thing all together," he says.